Prince of Thieves
by A. X. Zanier
Summary: Part of the Alyx Silver Altiverse.
1. Chapter 1

Author: A. X. Zanier

Title: Prince of Thieves

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or basic story ideas to "The Invisible Man." Any additional characters or ideas are mine to do with as I please. Timeline: After _Past Lies_

Comments: Another of the later Alyx Silver fics that actually received the beta treatment.

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Prince of Thieves

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"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty--power is ever stealing from the many to the few." That was said by Wendell Phillips. Now, I knew he was right. I had stolen from many people over the years to benefit only myself. But times, and I, had changed.

Now? Well, now I worked for the government, and stealing, at least of the type I used to do, was no longer an option. Or so the Official tried to get me to believe. Yet he also wanted me to believe that stealing, when it was for the benefit of the Agency, was somehow different. He'd never quite convinced me of that, but I had learned that, sometimes, doing the wrong thing for the right reasons can be justified.

"The head never rules the heart, but just becomes its partner in crime." Well, that's what I was hoping anyway.

"I'm bored," Darien said suddenly, sitting ensconced in the blankets and pillows of Alyx's bed.

This was rather surprising to her, seeing as she was standing at the foot of the bed with a couple of glasses of wine and in a state of dishabille. She was wearing a violet silk bathrobe that was barely covering the nothing she wore beneath. Cocking her head to one side she said, "Okaaay. I guess I could hit one of those stores on the west side. Do you prefer leather or latex?"

It took him a moment, but when what she'd said finally registered on his mind, he shook his head. "That's not what I meant. I was thinking about something else."

She walked over to the bed and sat down, handing him one of the glasses. "I should hope so. I suppose we could try it on the ceiling, but I can't guarantee not to get distracted and drop us." She sipped from her glass and watched while he almost choked on his wine at her words.

"Alyx...you wouldn't," he blustered, looking rather surprised. He'd never even considered anything like that. She had developed some habits surrounding her powers -- never had to worry about leaving on a light or forgetting to close a door -- but in general, unless it was directly work-related, she rarely used them. Being able to hit someone with a miniature lightning bolt at 30 yards was just not something that was needed on an average day. Neither was being on the ceiling.

She just looked at him over the top of the glass.

Shifting, he moved closer to her and kissed her shoulder, first baring it by sliding the bathrobe out of the way.

"Then why are you bored?" she asked quietly, trying to not let what he was doing influence her in any way. It was a losing battle, but she resisted the urge to melt until she got an answer.

He lifted his head to look at her. "Work. I mean, come on, snakes?"

Alyx laughed. "So you miss being shot or stabbed or captured and caused severe pain in one form or another?" The last six weeks or so had been rather boring for the Agency; much of the time they had been stuck doing Fish and Game scut work. But, given a choice between that and risking serious injury or death, she'd take the scut work any day. It gave her time to work on some of her personal projects and to just spend some time with Darien without the specter of danger hanging over their heads.

"Well, kinda, yeah." What he really missed was the rush. The anticipation of risk, of the potential danger, of succeeding against the odds. It gave him a thrill similar to that of some his more complex thefts. He knew Alyx had been enjoying this little island of calm in their otherwise insane lives, but he was getting bored again. He already knew how to solve his little boredom problem, but this time he'd need some help.

Alyx finished her wine and set the glass on the headboard of the bed. "So, capturing several dozen snakes because Bobby got overly enthusiastic doesn't count as dangerous?"

"They were just snakes. Not that big a deal." Darien shrugged and returned part of his attention to removing the bathrobe she wore.

Just snakes. There had been about fifty of the suckers and all of them had gotten loose after Bobby shot out the tire of the truck and caused it to crash over on its side. The guys who'd been trying to smuggle the snakes in were caught easily enough, considering both had been knocked unconscious in the crash. Catching the snakes, on the other hand, had been...interesting. Turned out Bobby had a bit of a phobia concerning the wee beasties, which left her and Darien to do most of the work.

Sad to say, but Darien had had no idea what he was doing. At one point, she'd caught him trying to pick up a rather venomous coral snake. She'd startled him so badly that he'd quicksilvered, much to his dismay and Bobby's amusement. The best thing to do, though, really. The snakes wanted no part of him when he was radiating such a degree of cold. It even put some of the snakes nearest to him into a stupor, which made them dead easy to catch.

She used her own quicksilver to do the same thing, and they had soon had the majority of the snakes snoozing in the back of the truck. She'd tried entering the minds of the snakes to control them, but they were too primitive, gained their input in too different a manner. She had no real way of influencing them other than luring them with little pockets of heat she could create and discouraging them with the intense cold of quicksilver. When back-up arrived -- back-up that could actually deal with fifty-some snakes, some of which were extremely poisonous -- they found her sitting against the rear door of the truck, calmly holding an eight foot anaconda that was snoozing peacefully in her arms. The beast had refused to go back into the truck, and instead coiled snugly about her. Both Darien and Bobby were convinced she was completely nuts.

"Try telling Bobby they were just snakes," she commented to him with a smile.

Darien dropped his head and began to shake with laughter. "He's never going to live this down," he said, and started quoting Indiana Jones. "'Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?'" Then he just laughed harder.

Alyx laughed as well, leaning against him. This wasn't getting them anywhere. She still didn't know why he was mentioning the fact that he was bored, and suspected that he was trying to find the courage to tell her. "All right," she urged as the laughter wound down. "What are you trying so hard not to tell me?"

He looked at that sweet smile and the tousled hair of hers and set his glass beside hers. "I need a favor," he said, not quite able to meet her eyes.

"Anything," she replied without hesitation. '_Well, almost anything_,' she amended to herself. There were some things she wouldn't do, even for him.

"You're easy," he commented. "But you might want to listen to what I have to say first, before you agree to anything."

His tone had turned serious, which only increased her curiosity. "Hmmm. Have you been misbehaving in your off hours?" Alyx asked this as a joke, but the look on his face told her everything she needed to know. "You have. Dare!" She didn't sound angry or even disappointed, just a bit surprised.

He moved and lay back down on the bed, completely unrepentant.

"Why? Besides the boredom that is?" She pulled the robe tighter about herself and shifted to sit cross-legged on the bed.

He rubbed his face in his hands, trying to think of how to explain this to her so that she would understand. "I've been a thief most of my life; the only reason I'm with the Agency is because I got caught once too often. I traded one life sentence for another."

Alyx just sat quietly. She knew all this, but he had never really talked with her about it. They rarely discussed their pasts before the Agency, unless it was necessary or involved something they were currently dealing with. Like when Jess had showed up. A whole lot about her past had come out then. She was just glad he had stood beside her through it. She would not have blamed him if he'd left. It was a hell of a lot to deal with, and it had once again left her wondering just who she really was. When she was with Darien, though, it didn't matter.

"Not that it's been all bad," he amended, looking at her. For a moment he let himself think about it again. If he hadn't said yes to Kevin, he'd still be in prison. He would never have come to the Agency, never have met Alyx. She'd still be with her kids and her husband -- which they now knew was not the best of options -- and she'd never have gotten her powers. Never have met him. Even she had come to accept that, given the alternatives, this was the best possible outcome. And hell, he could safely say he'd much rather be with her, even stuck with the gland, than still in prison trying not to be consumed by the horror he knew it could become.

Out of all the women he had known, had been with, she was the first he'd been able to talk to about some of the things that had happened to him in his life. Things that sometimes still brought him awake sweating with a scream trapped in his throat because the memory was so strong. She was the first to have accepted him for who he was, flaws and all. The first he hadn't felt the need to lie to about who and what he was.

Damn, this was turning out to be harder than he thought.

He screwed up enough courage to continue. "Working here has let me use some of my skills, and taught me a bunch more, but it's not the same. A thief avoids confrontation, while we tend to walk headfirst into trouble. A good thief spends time planning every move, for every potential problem, but half the time we don't know what's going on until we're in the middle of trouble that we didn't even know was coming."

Alyx nodded in agreement. The Official was known for not giving all the information he had on some cases. Or sending them jobs for multiple reasons but only telling them about the one on the surface. This had led them into some dangerous situations that none of them liked or enjoyed.

"Being a thief requires a certain mindset, and working for the Agency isn't always compatible. It hasn't been an easy adjustment," he added a bit ruefully.

Alyx actually burst out laughing. "How do you think I feel? I went from being a subservient housewife to wonder woman. At least some of the skills overlapped for you."

"You win on that one, but you've adjusted to the work much better than I have. You simply learned what you needed; you had no habits to unlearn. I had to, still have to, consciously adjust my mindset every time I go out on a job," Darien countered.

"Hmmm. Okay, I can see that, but what does this have to do with you keeping your hand in?" Alyx reached out and trailed a hand down his nearest arm. "And what are you doing with your ill-gotten gains?"

He grabbed her hand when it reached his. "Nothing. I mean, I haven't actually been stealing anything. Well, not at first."

Alyx gave him an odd look.

"At first, I'd do things like leave candy or gifts for kids or old friends that I kinda missed. Stuff like that. The challenge was simply to get in and get out. Instead of taking stuff, I'd leave stuff. Like the tooth fairy." He shrugged and squeezed her hand, hoping she'd understand.

"I hear a 'but' in there," she said with a smile.

"Yeah, a big one," he sighed. "I happened to be in this one house and the owner was awake in her room. I overheard her on the phone; she'd been swindled by some local get-rich-quick scheme and was having a hell of a time trying to make ends meet. No one seemed to be willing to help her catch the guy."

Alyx unfolded and moved closer to him, lifting the hand holding hers and kissing his fingers. "And you decided to do something about it," she stated.

Darien almost looked embarrassed. "Yeah, I did. Found the guy's place and broke in. Got the proof she needed to get the guy arrested."

Alyx didn't react at first. She was thinking. It took a bit longer than she planned.

"Alyx? You mad at me?" he wondered aloud with a hint of worry in his voice.

She shook her head and then kissed him. "Mook, why would I be mad?" Then she made the connection and began to laugh again. "Please don't tell me you're the 'Robin Hood' thief that's been in the news lately?"

He nodded a bit sheepishly, and she just laughed harder. "Oh gods, Dare. If the Fat Man finds out, I think he'll have a coronary, and then Bobby would have to kill you." She collapsed back on the bed, looking up at the wooden frame of the canopy.

Some of the most annoying and elusive scam artists and swindlers in town had been arrested over the last several weeks, after the needed, but previously unattainable, proof against them had mysteriously turned up. The miracles were being attributed to a 'Robin Hood'-type thief who was stealing the information right out from under the bad guys' noses and leaving multiple copies with known victims. The police were supposedly looking for the thief, but a majority of the city was more than happy that he'd done what the local law enforcement had been unable to do. And she was currently lying in bed with him.

Darien waited patiently until her laughter dissolved into giggles and then snickers. She eventually got control of herself. "And here I was worried you'd done something exceptionally stupid, even for you."

"Stupid? Hey that's not nice." He rolled so that he was looking down at her, supported by his arms.

"I'm sorry," she said, trying not to laugh again. "Darien, what am I going to do with you?"

"Help me. I've got one more I want to do, but it's looking to be a two-man job." He was serious.

"I'm no thief," she responded with a laugh.

"You're not a secret agent either, but you seem to do that well enough," he tossed back at her.

That silenced her laughter and made her stop and think. "Point taken, but I ain't gonna rush into this..."

He jumped on her words. "Does this mean you'll help?" He had been at least a little concerned that she might just turn him over to the Official, if not the police, just to get him to stop. Or worse; tell Hobbes.

She nodded. "On one condition."

"Anything," he said, using her own words.

"You teach me to pick locks," she requested reaching up to run her hand along his face.

"Is that all?" he asked, surprised. Admittedly, he had been refusing to do so for months now. It seemed like crossing a line to him -- she was the honest one, the good one, the innocent one -- but now, after everything that had happened, it didn't really seem to matter. He lowered himself down and kissed her. "Tomorrow, though, okay?" He undid the tie on the robe and opened it, revealing the tanned flesh beneath.

"And why is that?" she asked him, trying not to notice what his hands were doing.

"Because your hands are going to be otherwise occupied for a while," he chuckled, and then proceeded to make sure that indeed happened.

They met as his place the following evening.

It had been an unexciting day for Alyx, involving paperwork and some simulations down in the lab. For Darien, it was just paperwork. Claire ran a couple of tests on Alyx in the afternoon, just to make sure she was still holding up, personality-wise, and that she had gotten over any ongoing effects from her _husband's_ recent visit. Most of the effects from that weren't physical, and she was dealing with it as well as could be expected. Darien was helping the most with that, just by being there.

The fact that Jess was dead now made some things easier on her. She didn't have to worry about him turning the kids over to his superiors, whoever they might be. She didn't have to worry about him showing up again. She didn't have to worry about him trying to tear her away from Darien. Not that that would be possible, not anymore.

Her brother, Michael, had been designated as her kids' guardian. He was currently living with them and training them for what was most likely going to be their future: working for the Agency.

When she walked through his door, Darien was just finishing up his dinner preparations, as it was his turn to cook. Alyx set her backpack down on his couch and then wandered over to the kitchen, wrapping her arms about him and leaning against his back.

"Long day?" he asked her, giving the sauce one last stir. He'd only seen her in passing today, except for a few minutes down in the Keep, and she'd been pretty busy then.

"Long, boring, unsuccessful day," she mumbled into his back. "And then Claire decided it was time to psychoanalyze me again and make sure my personality was still stable."

Darien chuckled. If Claire only knew. "She still doesn't know, huh?"

Alyx pulled away and moved to his side. "Like I'm going to be dumb enough to tell her?"

He wrapped an arm about her. "Dinner will be ready soon. Sit for a few." He steered her over to the couch and, once she'd moved her bag, they sat. "You're sure you'll be fine?"

"I'm quite sure. I really don't need or want to discuss my feelings with her. I seriously don't think she'd understand." She slouched down on the couch her legs stretched out along the floor. "Being with you for fifteen minutes does more good than hours of talking, and you know it."

"I know. You've come back amazingly well and fast, considering everything," he said, quietly leaning over to bring his head closer to hers.

"Yeah, well, it might have been fun, but I couldn't be multiple-me forever," she grouched, tipping her head back and closing her eyes.

"Oh, I don't know. It did keep us on our toes," he said teasingly. She opened her eyes to look at him. "Tell Claire to bug off. Michael said you were well enough, and next to me he'd be the one to know."

"Ah. Does that mean you think I'm okay? Really?" Her tone was serious. One of her biggest worries was him pushing her away because she had changed too much, had become too different for him to care anymore.

"Really. You may not be exactly the same as before, but no one stays the same forever. I certainly haven't," he told her. He meant every word. She wasn't the same as before Heilburg screwed with her mind, but if anything, it was in a good way. In many ways she'd still been very naive for someone so intelligent and doing what she did. Now she was a bit more cynical, a bit tougher, a bit less forgiving, and a lot more dangerous.

None of that mattered to him, though. He knew exactly how she felt inside -- had experienced it for himself -- and while she still had to fight and resist some of those more dangerous thoughts and emotions, she was still totally stuck on him, needed him, wanted him. It always surprised him. He knew how he felt about her, which had freaked him more than enough, but to know that she felt the same was just astonishing.

"And you are thinking too much again," she chided him. "This might not be where I would have chosen to end up, but I'll take it if it gets me you in the bargain."

He was leaning down to kiss her when the kitchen timer went off. With a groan of disappointment, he got up, turned it off, and then retrieved the manicotti he'd made earlier from the oven. It was the least he could do, considering what he was planning on asking of her.

He looked over at her, and for a moment he thought she might have fallen asleep, but then she turned to look at him resting her chin on the back of the couch.

"Food, then info, I take it?" she queried quietly.

He nodded. "With dessert."

She got to her feet and helped him get the food to the table. Then she chose a bottle of wine to drink. "Dessert, huh?"

Walking past her with the garlic bread, he paused and gave her a quick kiss. "Yes, dessert. Now sit and eat. You don't want the chef to feel insulted do you?"

She rolled her eyes. "Heaven forfend." But she sat and ate.

Darien was mildly surprised that she didn't demand information all through dinner. Instead, she calmly talked trivialities and about the most recent book they'd finished. She was driving him crazy with how patient she was; he had expected her to be a bit nervous, asking questions right and left. But, as they cleaned up, he realized she was treating this like just another job, not bothering to get all worked up until she had all the information. He wasn't quite sure if he liked that. To him this was anything but just another job.

They headed out of the apartment for his car, which would blend in far better, where they were going. As he opened the door for her, an unnecessary gesture that she did appreciate, she said, "I know how serious this is for you. I just figured you'd get to it when you were ready."

He let out a sigh of relief. "I was a bit worried."

"Dare, if I had been nervous and jumpy, how much confidence would you have had then?" She slid into the seat and looked up at him.

"Very little," he replied, knowing it was true. He shut her door and moments later they were on their way.

A little while later, they were sitting outside the small ice cream shop eating their desserts. Alyx spoke up. "Okay, I know we're not here for the ice cream, good as it is, so where's the target?"

Darien nodded at an impressive building just down the street and Alyx turned to look at it. She recognized the building after a moment. "You want to take down Nate Richards?" she asked as she turned back to him. "Are you nuts?"

He glanced at his wrist. "Not yet," he joked. "I need your help to find his records. He claims there are no real profits, that the money is all tied up in the company."

"Flashback to William J. McCorkle," Alyx muttered, and Darien gave her an odd look. "Guy who got nailed for the same thing in Florida back when I lived there." She thought for a moment. "You don't aim small do you, Robin?"

He raised his eyebrows at that last. "Does that make you Maid Marian?"

Alyx laughed. "Keep in mind what the 'Maid' stood for, bud." Looking back at the building she asked, "What do you need me for?"

"Somewhere in that computer system is the information on where the money is. I need you to find it," he answered quietly.

"What if it's not here?" she asked him, trying to think ahead.

"Then we check his house. There must be a trail somewhere." He could almost see the wheels turning in her mind.

"What's the security like?" She was ready for more input, trying to figure out if it was even feasible.

"A bitch. He has the money to pay for the best, and he has. You name the nasty little surprise, he probably has it. But I think, between the two of us, we can manage." He tipped his head slightly to the side. "I thought we'd scout now and make a try tomorrow night."

She was nodding her head. "Barring work happening."

He got to his feet. "You ready?"

"There's something I want to grab from my backpack first." She led the way back to his car and opened the trunk. After a moment of searching through her bag, she came out with the wireless internet connection for her laptop and a funny looking headset.

"What the hell is that?" he asked. She fitted the thing over her ear, with what looked like a small screen in front of her right eye.

"The one good thing I got from Arnaud. These rigs are great; eminently portable, have just enough built in memory to be useful, and I don't have to worry about a power source," Alyx told him, with glee in her voice as she powered the sucker up.

They began walking toward the building. "What are you going to do with it?"

"Well, right now I'm accessing the building's blueprints. Then I'm going to overlay the security schematics to get an idea of what we're going to deal with." Alyx said as she was doing exactly that. "Plus, with a little tweaking I may be able to override the security system through this rig."

"Are you sure you haven't done this before?" Darien asked her with a laugh. He had to admit he was suitably impressed. Though why he should be surprised by that he didn't know.

Alyx laughed and shook her head as they continued towards the building. A few more steps, a quick check to see if there were any watchers, and the two of them quicksilvered. They made their way around the back of the building to one of the service entrances. It had one of those key card locks that also required a code. Alyx laid her hand on the reader and inserted her mind into it.

"I can do this easy, without setting off an alarm," she whispered to him. She accessed her computer link and, after a bit of searching, came up with a phone number that would allow her access to the computer inside the building. Once inside, she compared the data she had found on the building to what was really in there and was not surprised to find some differences. Then she searched for the location of the main computer. As was typical, it was down in the sub-basement area of the building. That was where she'd need to be to gain the access she wanted.

"What?" he whispered right next to her.

"Later," she muttered. She was downloading the info and essentially e-mailing it to herself. "I have what I need. Anything else?"

"Do you have the guard info?" he asked. There would be people inside watching monitors, if not actually making rounds in the building, plus cleaning staff, late workers, all the usual.

"No, good thought." She accessed the scheduling for the week, which covered security as well as cleaning staff. Late night workers she could do nothing about. "Got it."

"Now we just need to find the best way in." Darien was looking up, noticing that the windows did indeed open on this building.

They started walking, checking out the perimeter. Alyx pulled the building blueprints back up and found a corner to drop the quicksilver. Darien joined her. "Problem?"

"Can't read the screen when I'm quicksilvered. Data I pull up I can...feel, I'd guess you'd say. I need to actually see the blueprint, though." Alyx answered in a soft voice.

"And you are looking at the blueprint because..." he asked with a smile. He had a feeling she was on to something.

"I think I might have a way in that isn't quite so obvious." Checking about for anyone, she led the way around to the side of the building where the main parking lot was. She paused and, after taking a moment to orient herself, began to walk purposefully. A bit of searching in one of the grassy dividers between parking lot sections revealed a well-camouflaged concrete opening. There was a hinged door in the top that had a very large lock on it.

Darien gave her an odd look. "Sewer?"

"Electrical conduit. Phone cables and stuff like that," she explained, looking up at him. "Leads right into the building."

"It can't be that easy," he said.

"It's not. There are at least three security gates to get through and," she looked him up and down, "it's going to be a really tight fit for you. The tunnel is only about three feet in diameter, but according to this we'd end up in the power distribution center, one level below the main computer." Alyx said. "I'll show you when we get back to your place." Her head cocked to the side. "Company," she said even as the quicksilver began to flow across her. Darien followed her lead, and moments later a pair of security guards came around the far side of the building, doing what looked like a routine check.

Alyx followed Darien and they made their way back to his car.

Alyx was lying sprawled the wrong way on Darien's bed with her laptop in front of her, going over a few things. This was looking to be pretty easy and, except for getting the info out of the mainframe, she wondered why he'd asked her to help. "Dare, how have you been pulling these off? I know you haven't been getting any extra counteragent."

He reached out from his position at the head of the bed and grabbed one of her ankles to stop the swinging of her legs. Part of her always seemed to be in motion, but he found it far more amusing than annoying. "Well, that's because I haven't been using the quicksilver to get into these places." He slid his hands further up her calf hoping to distract her, but her mind had settled on one track for now.

Her head tipped down so that her forehead rested on the bed and she groaned. "And that's how you want to do this one?"

"Yeah, is that a problem?" He began kneading the muscle of her leg, just because it was there.

"How far do you want to take this? I am going to need to use my powers to get in the computer, but the rest could pretty much be done without any extras..." she said, turning her head slightly to look at him.

"That's how I've been doing them. Just the skills I have." He could tell this had her a bit concerned. Since coming to the Agency, she had pretty much integrated her powers into her everyday life, and using them for a job was par for the course. Not that she relied on them, or flaunted their use. In fact, she avoided using her more dramatic abilities unless she had to, but the boss kept sending her on assignments that could not be easily completed without them. Some jobs could not be completed at all without her extra talents. Still, even after all this time, she still had a fear of hurting people with her abilities. What had happened with Arnaud and Heilburg only reinforced her worries.

Darien couldn't find fault with her concern. He'd seen her contain explosions, lift vehicles, stop bullets, any number of impossible feats. He still had no idea of the true extent of her power -- no one did. Claire had tried to measure her potential, but had been unable to. He was...scared wasn't the right word...more like in awe of what she could do, yet didn't. She had so much power, and yet she would rather laze around reading a book with him than do any of the dozen or so less-than-honest things he could think of to do with her powers. Too bad she hadn't been around when the Official tried to break the bank at that casino of Arnaud's. She'd have been much better at it than he, and without having to go invisible. Now if he just convince her to go to Las Vegas with him....

She shut off her computer and set it on the floor. Turning about, she crawled over to him and, after a kiss, curled up against him. "On one condition," she said.

"What?" he ran his hands through her hair and down her back.

"All bets are off if trouble happens," she stated, actually sounding tired.

He laughed. "Of course. I'm not that crazy."

She lifted her head to look at him. "You do remember what it is we are going to do, don't you?" When he nodded, she just shook her head. "What am I going to do with you?"

Rolling so that she was now beneath him, he said, "Oh, I have a few suggestions."


	2. Chapter 2

* Part 2*

Neither of them was very awake the next day at work, but they lucked out in that there was nothing major requiring their special talents. While Darien and Hobbes did a little catching up on past paperwork, Alyx went down to the lab to work on a few of her own projects. When she finished her work in the Keep, she headed up to her office to work on a few other things. She still had ongoing research into her former husband, general work that she helped Eberts out with -- he'd e-mailed her a list -- and she downloaded some interesting reports on various subjects to read later.

Darien sauntered in around one o'clock and sat down on her desk, toying with a kinetic energy sculpture she had there.

"'Sup Dare?" she said, glancing up at him.

"Want to go grab some lunch?" He wasn't meeting her eyes, so she knew something was up.

She powered down her laptop and put it in her bag. "Sure." She tossed her backpack over her shoulder and waited for him to lead the way. He left the building and went to her car. Although she did wonder why they were not taking his, she didn't ask and slid in the driver's seat.

They ended up at one of the beaches she frequented, after picking up some deli sandwiches and sides. Darien was lying on his side with Alyx leaning back against him. He was toying with a plastic fork while Alyx stared off at the water, with her shoes off and her feet buried in the sand.

"What's the problem?" she asked finally.

"Bobby suspects something, and we have a stake-out tonight. So our little date is off," Darien told her, squinting up at her.

"Hmmm. I'm not on the stake-out, obviously," Alyx said, drawing her knees up to her chest. "What's got Bobby's paranoia up?"

"He tried to call, then stopped by my place looking for me last night. Your car was still there, so he figured something was up." Darien sighed. "He's suspicious as hell, but I'm not sure what set him off."

Alyx turned to look at him. "Does it matter?" She shifted to lie along side him. "It just makes it a bigger challenge now, doesn't it?"

Darien reached out and tapped her on the nose. "You were supposed to try and talk me out of it."

"Right, like I could. You're torn between hurting Bobby by going ahead and the thrill of dodging Bobby to get the job done," Alyx summed with a smile. "I told you I'd help. I will."

"Can you play hooky for the afternoon?" His hand had moved to caress her face, his thumb tracing the outline of her lips.

"Of course. Why?" Alyx closed her eyes and just allowed herself to feel.

"'Cause I'm supposed to be catching a nap and I thought company might be nice." Darien watched her response to his touch and smiled. He leaned in and gave her a quick kiss. "Come on."

They packed up the leftovers and the blanket and headed back to her car. After she dropped him off at his car, they drove separately back to his place. When Darien walked in, Alyx was already sprawled on his bed with her shoes discarded on the floor. She had changed into a pair of shorts and oversized T-shirt. He tossed his jacket over a chair, kicked off his shoes, and jumped onto the bed with her, much to her delight. She laughed at his pure silliness.

"When's Bobby picking you up?" she asked him through the laughter.

"Eight," he answered, snuggling closer to her.

"Then you had better sleep." She spooned back against him and he wrapped his arms about her.

"What will you do?" He actually sounded drowsy.

"Oh, me? I'll just be. Now sleep. You want to ease Bobby's suspicions, not add to them." She curled her fingers about his and relaxed as he mumbled something into her hair and began to drift off. She encouraged his sleepiness until he was truly asleep, then did exactly what she'd said she was going to do. She just lay there and enjoyed his presence, letting herself drift. Going over anything that presented itself in her mind.

Alyx opened the door at the second knock. "Hey, Bobby." She stepped out of the way and he walked into the apartment. "He's just about ready."

"Kid, are you always here?" Bobby asked. It was obvious he was fishing for something.

"No, Hobbes. She has a life," Darien said as he came out of his bathroom. He walked over to Alyx. "See you tomorrow?"

"Only if you're conscious," she gave him a shove. "Go on. Have fun waiting for something to happen."

"Fun, right." But he followed Bobby out to the van.

They were on their way to the docks, where they were supposedly going to be watching a warehouse for a shipment of illegal animals. Emphasis on 'supposedly.'

"What is going on, Fawkes? You're up to something, and I'm betting you've gotten the kid involved in it as well." Bobby kept glancing over at his partner as he drove.

"Hobbes, what the hell are you talking about?" Darien did his best to sound confused and exasperated at his friend.

"Fawkes, I know you too well. You've been bored out of your mind lately with work, yet you're spending less time with the kid, not more, and you keep coming to work tired. It seems to be running in cycles." Hobbes pulled the van to a stop, partially hidden by some crates a short distance from the warehouse they were supposed to be watching. "You weren't home last night and this morning you were a zombie. What are you planning now?"

"Hobbes, take your meds. You're even more paranoid than usual," Darien commented as he climbed out of the van to get a better look at the warehouse. Yeah, it was a low blow, but he had to try and distract him somehow.

"Fawkes, don't pull that shit with me." Hobbes climbed out with a pair of binoculars to stand next to Darien. "I will find out, one way or another." He lifted the glasses and focused them on the particular warehouse they were watching. "Remember Liz Morgan?"

Darien groaned. Was Bobby never going to let him forget that one? He decided to try a different tactic. "Hobbes, do you really think I could hide something like that from Alyx?"

"Hide? No. Con her into helping? Maybe. And the kid don't need to deal with crap like that." Bobby had lowered the glasses to look at his partner, hoping to catch a look of guilt or remorse on Darien's face, but he was out of luck this time. Either Darien was telling the truth or his ability to lie had improved.

Darien kept his look bland. "Can we just do this stupid stakeout, Hobbes? Another night doing scut work for Fish & Game." He leaned against the crates and looked over the quiet dock area. It looked like it was going to be a long boring night.

Bobby watched Darien for another moment and then shook his head. "Yeah, well, so long as it ain't snakes."

Darien somehow didn't laugh, even though he wanted to. "Bobby, I swear there is no way I could make Alyx do anything she didn't want to do."

"Yeah, well, keep it that way. Or I'll be forced to hurt you," Bobby said, sounding as gruff as he could. Overall the kid had been a good influence on Fawkes, but as Bobby well knew, his partner was a thief at heart. If he was determined to cause trouble, there was nothing and no one that could stop him. Except Bobby Hobbes, of course.

Alyx hung out at Darien's place for a couple hours, doing a bit more research about Nate Richards and the building they were planning on breaking into in the near future. On the off chance of being able to avoid breaking in, she tried to access the main computer via the internet. She was successful, sort of. There was a dedicated server for the web site information, but it was separate from the business computer and she could not access that one from here. She would have to be there in person to get the information.

Next was trying to figure out how to defeat the security without using her abilities. There were some things she couldn't help but do. Even if she did nothing to them, she would still know where all the electronics were. The cameras, the motion and sound sensors, the laser grids. Even if they were not on the schematics she had, she would still know where they were. That would help, anyway. Darien had no idea some of the jobs the boss had given her in recent weeks. Breaking into a place to steal information was nothing new. Hell, the first job she'd done for the Agency had been a snatch and grab for computer intel. It was the 'no powers' dictate she was having trouble with.

She had never doubted Darien's abilities, but for him to have done what he had without using any quicksilver, no matter how tempting, impressed her. There were days Alyx did doubt her own abilities, even after all this time here. Yeah, she had learned everything she needed to work for the Agency, to get the job done, but in many ways it was nothing more than another face she wore. Just one more part she played out of the dozens she had been over all these months.

The only times she felt like herself, or how she saw herself, was when she alone with Darien. She was slowly pulling herself back together, finding out exactly who she was and who she wanted to be. She was discovering that she liked the person she saw in the mirror, the person she saw reflected in Darien's eyes and mind.

She shut down her laptop and packed it away. She wasn't going to need it for what she was planning to do tonight. Grabbing Darien's spare car keys, she headed out to do a bit more scouting. She needed to check out something she saw on the blueprints, something that might cause a problem when the time came to actually do the job.

Alyx parked in a completely different location than the night before -- no need to have his car associated with the area. She parked near a bar a few blocks away and walked inside, intending to have a quick drink. Luckily she didn't look all that out of place there; in fact, the bartender never even asked for her ID when she ordered. Maybe it was the fact that she ordered whiskey straight, or maybe he regularly served underage kids. It didn't really matter.

After killing about half an hour, she made her way to the back of the bar and the so-called 'ladies room.' She quicksilvered and walked out the back door into the alley behind the bar. This was where she had the advantage over Darien; she had no concerns about how long she could stay invisible. They had yet to even make an effort at seeing what her limit was. She walked the distance to the parking lot behind the target building and approached the electrical conduit out back. Once sure there was no one near, she flaked off the quicksilver and knelt down to examine the lock. It was a big sucker, designed to be resistant to lock picks and bolt cutters. Darien hadn't seemed worried about it, so he must know how to defeat this kind of lock. She, on the other hand, was going to have to cheat.

She didn't want to make it obvious that someone had been here, so she dared not destroy the lock. Instead, she carefully felt her way into the locking mechanism and, at first, did nothing more than examine it. These could be tricky. If done wrong it would damage the mechanism, and then they would know someone had been here. Once she was sure she could unlock it without damaging it, she did so.

According to the records, the various utilities had keys to this tunnel, as did the maintenance crews for the building itself. But if work needed to be done beyond the security gates in the tunnel, the local utilities had to call for access, which made Alyx a bit suspicious about the security gates. That's why she was here.

She checked for any security around the entrance. When she discovered none, just as the city blueprints said, she moved the lock, opened the door, and slipped inside, closing the door behind her. Concentrating, she moved the lock back into place and closed it just enough for it to appear to be secured. She was pretty sure the guards wouldn't actually walk out here and rattle the damn thing. That's what she was hoping, anyway. She wasn't all that sure she'd be able to unlock it from this side, but if they found it unlocked they would probably set off an alarm or two. She really, really wanted to avoid that.

Staying on the ladder for the time being, she checked ahead for any obvious security systems and discovered none. The only power she could sense was running through the assorted electric and phone lines. Climbing down to the bottom, she pulled out the small flashlight she'd brought with her and turned it on. She didn't want to risk drawing attention to the place by turning on the lighting -- someone somewhere might notice -- and it was too dark for even her eyes to adjust to anything more than a very dim gray on gray view. Quicksilver sight wasn't much better in this case. No ambient light, no sight.

Once down in the tunnel itself, she knew it was going to be very tight for Darien. While the floor was flat, a majority of the space was taken up with a variety of cables that were held in place along the wall and part of the ceiling, greatly reducing the diameter of the tunnel. It was tight for her. There was enough room for a worker to sit in reasonable comfort while testing cables, but to walk any distance would be a royal pain in the ass. Good thing Darien was skinny; he was going to have to crawl through here, and there was a couple hundred feet of tunnel to get through.

Arriving at the first security door a few minutes later, she had her fears confirmed. This side of the security door was completely blank. She could see where the hinges were, but they and the lock keeping the door shut were on the other side. There weren't even any screws or bolts she could get at. Everything seemed to have been integrated directly into the metal of the door itself. This was going to be a problem. Next she probed gently on the far side of the door and encountered the first security hurdle. The lock for the gate was electronic, and she wasn't sure how they would disable it from this side. The hinges were wired as well. In fact, the entire frame of the door was wired, so that even if they tried to insert a wire between the door and frame to deactivate the lock, they would set off the alarm first. Damn. Richards must be hiding something major for his security to be this tight.

She spent a few minutes grumbling to herself about thieves and their weird sense of honor, then took a deep breath. Checking the door itself she discovered that, except for the frame, it was not wired. Even so, she was unsure how they were going to get through it. Blasting it with explosives would probably not be a good choice. Maybe a welding torch?

She relaxed back against the wall for a moment to think. She could come up with an easy half dozen ways to get in using any combination of their skills or powers, but she was drawing a bit of a blank on how to get in without them. That's why Darien was the one in charge, but he'd need this intel for him to know what to do. The two other gates were probably set up in a similar manner.

Even she couldn't just blast a hole in the door. Well, she could, but it would be messy. She had enough fine control to manipulate locks and such, but she couldn't gently tear out a section of the door. Melt, maybe, but the metal of the door was awfully thick and there was a chance she'd melt the power cables before the door gave, and they would still have to wait for it to cool before they could get through. Not that it mattered; he wanted to get through without using any fancy extras. She was seriously beginning to wonder if it would be possible. Maybe they _should_ just climb in through a window.

Finished here, she made her way back out, returned everything to the way it should be, and made her way back to Darien's car. Sitting in the driver's seat, she mulled the situation some more. She knew there had to be a way in, but she just couldn't see it. She was too used to doing things a particular way, using the skills the Agency had taught her -- not all of which were orthodox -- but still, this was not something she'd specifically encountered before. Maybe she should talk Darien into more than just lock-picking lessons. Learning a few new ways to sneak into places could only help with her work at the Agency. Right?

She drove back to Darien's place, dropped off his keys, and grabbed her backpack. She was home fifteen minutes later. Seeing that it was still early, she chose to do a light workout before going to bed. She wanted to sleep tonight instead of tossing and turning. She had to learn to sleep alone again; since Jess' visit she'd been having serious trouble sleeping alone. She was still having nightmares, nightmares she'd only told Darien about. Nightmares that had brought up a lot of old and painful memories.

She used up her energy against her punching bag, running through the full gambit of punches and kicks that she had learned over the years. By the time an hour had passed she was sweat-soaked and had worked off the majority of her excess energy. After stretching out she headed to the shower. She spent several long minutes doing nothing more than letting the cool water run down her body and bring her body temperature back down to something resembling normal. She did her best to begin relaxing, slowing her body's systems down so that she might actually fall asleep quickly. She needed to; she truly was tired and, even if she was awake at four in the morning, she could always head into work early. Maybe she could meet Darien for lunch, if he was even awake by then.

When she crawled into bed a short time later it was with every intention of sleeping peacefully.

Darien yawned and stretched, trying to convince his body that it did indeed want to be awake at -- he checked his watch and groaned -- almost three in the morning. Even with the nap he had taken that afternoon he was getting tired. Mainly out of boredom. Bobby had dozed off about an hour ago and they'd run out of coffee just after one, with no hope of getting more. So he was very surprised when lights appeared from around the far end of the row of warehouses and rumbled in his direction.

"Finally," he muttered. Moving to the van he gave Hobbes a quick shake, waking him.

"Fawkes?" he muttered. "What?"

"Company," Darien answered hooking his thumb in the direction of the warehouse.

Hobbes nodded and got to his feet, full consciousness returning quickly now that there was actually something to do. He picked up the binoculars and watched as two cars and three trucks pulled into the building. The big bay doors shut behind them. "Well, it looks like something is going down, anyway." He looked over at Darien. "Lets get you wired up and you can check it out."

Darien nodded and moved back to the van, where Hobbes dug out the headset and handed it to him. As soon as they had tested the system, Darien was on his way to check out what exactly was going on inside. The warehouses were set in pairs, to allow vehicles access from the side as well as the ends and also to reduce traffic congestion. Their target had the oversized alleyway facing them and this is where Darien headed. He stuck to the shadows and made his way to the side of the building where he knew, from staring at the ones nearer to their position for the last several hours, there were windows he could use to get a look at what was inside, or perhaps even gain entry into the building.

The first set of windows were blocked with crap piled inside the building, so he moved further down the alley to the next set. From there he could see a couple of the vehicles that had driven in. Standing around nearby were half dozen guys discussing something, but he had no idea what. Trying the windows, he eventually found one that swung open and he tried to overhear what was being said.

"Well, Fawkes?" Bobby asked in his ear.

Darien moved away from the window, not wanting his voice to carry into the building. "Not much. They're just talking." He turned slightly to watch the men inside, but they were pretty much doing the same thing. They weren't even unloading anything.

"Find a way in and check it out," Bobby advised him.

"Working on it. Just don't want any more surprises than necessary." Darien moved down to the next set of windows, hoping to get a different view of the interior, but this window was partially blocked and revealed nothing useful to him. Grumbling under his breath he made his way back to the window he had opened, fully intending to quicksilver and sneak inside.

Bobby had the binoculars to his eyes, trying to see what the hell was going on at the warehouse, when his cell phone went off in his pocket. Wondering who the heck it could be at this hour, he pulled it out with one hand and answered. "Hobbes."

"Bobby, don't let Darien go in that warehouse," Alyx's voice drifted out from the phone.

"Kid? What are you talking about?" Hobbes did not need the kid playing jokes on them, not at this hour.

"Bobby, don't screw around. Keep him out of that damn warehouse." The urgency in her voice was obvious. "Please, Bobby. Just for a little while. Call him back."

"All right, kid. Calm down." Without hanging up the phone, Hobbes spoke into his mic. "Fawkes, hold up a minute."

Darien twitched as the quicksilver that was about to flow was suddenly stopped. It left him with a horrible crawling sensation all over his skin. "Hobbes, don't do that." He kept his voice to a whisper even though he wanted to shout at his partner. Ah, the sensation felt worse than swallowing a sneeze. And very uncomfortable as well.

"Fawkes, just hang back for a bit," Bobby said to him. He was starting to think the kid might be right. He could hear some engines nearby, but could not yet see the vehicles making the sound. "Clear out and head back here."

"Hobbes..." Darien sounded more than a touch irritated.

"Now!" Hobbes barked at him. He heard Darien mutter something derogatory and then give his reluctant agreement. Bobby focused back on the phone. "Kid, you still there?"

"Yeah, Bobby." Her voice was still tight.

"He's on his way back." He wasn't sure what was going on with her, but there was no way she would have called if there wasn't a reason. A real reason.

"Thanks, Bobby," she said, relief evident in her tone, and then the line went dead.

Bobby put the phone back in his pocket as Darien walked up to him. The headset now dangled down his back and he did not look happy. In fact he looked pretty pissed off. "What the hell was all that about, Hobbes?" He was finally going to actually do something and Hobbes, on some seemingly unexplained whim, decides to call him back. This was annoying, even for Hobbes.

Bobby was still listening to the deep rumbling of what must be a large truck and watching for it. "Do you trust your partner Fawkes?"

"Hobbes, if this is some weird loyalty test..." Darien trailed off and turned around as he too heard the vehicle. A moment later, a huge, heavy-duty, military-style truck appeared from around the end of the row.

It drove up slowly towards the warehouse they had been watching and lined itself up with the doors. The engine revved, once, twice, and then the driver floored it and smashed his way inside. Shouts and then gunshots quickly followed. Both Bobby and Darien looked at each other for a moment then back at the warehouse. The sound of gunfire increased, and continued for several minutes. There was an eerie pause and then the entire warehouse exploded, sending flames and debris billowing into the night sky. The explosion was so violent that the crates they had parked the van behind shattered, burying the two men and the van under debris.

When they crawled out from the wreckage several minutes later, neither seriously hurt, they simply looked at the destruction in astonishment.

Darien found his voice first. "I don't know and I don't care how you knew, but I'll never argue with your orders again." All Darien could think of was the fact that if Bobby hadn't told him to come back to the van, he would have been inside when the place went up in a ball of fire.

Bobby shook his head. "I'd love to take credit for saving your ass, but it wasn't me. The kid called and told me to get you out of there." Sirens could now be heard in the distance. "Somehow I have the feeling they were smuggling something more than animals."

"No shit," was Darien's enlightened comment. He was still staring at the fire, trying not to think about how close he'd come. He was also not trying to think about the fact that the Official must have known what these guys were really transporting, and that his failure to tell them about it had nearly killed him. Maybe Alyx was right about doing the scut work. It might be boring as hell, but it was a lot safer.

Hobbes moved out into the open, heading for the fire crews and police vehicles that were arriving. Whatever had happened here, the Agency was a part of it and he still had the duty to find out what had happened and report back to the Official. On this occasion he was not all that thrilled that they had been kept in the dark. Fawkes could have been killed if he'd been in there went the place went up. Quicksilver or no quicksilver.


	3. Chapter 3

*Part 3*

Bobby walked into the Official's office to turn in his preliminary report around ten the next morning. He'd had no sleep yet, but he wanted to get this over with. He'd dropped off Fawkes at his place about an hour ago, after finally getting things wrapped up at the docks. Then he'd gone home to shower and change before coming in.

It had turned out that those 'illegal animals' that were being smuggled in were actually a new weapons system similar to a small rocket launcher, but far more powerful, whose code name was Blackhawk. "Illegal animals my ass," Bobby muttered as he walked into the Official's office.

The Official lifted his head to look at him. "What was that?"

Bobby just shook his head, walked to the desk and set the report down on it. "Long night, sir," was all he said. His temper was worn a bit thin. If they had done things the way they normally did, Fawkes might very well be in the hospital right now, or perhaps the morgue, and all because the Fat Man failed to tell them the entire truth about the mission yet again.

The Official glanced over the report and then handed it to Eberts. "Where is Fawkes?"

"Home. Asleep. He'll be in later," Bobby answered.

"You should have brought him to the Keeper," the Official admonished.

"Why? Its not like he used the gland last night," Bobby snapped. "Never got the chance to."

Eberts lifted his head from reading the report to look at Hobbes. "According to your report, you ordered Fawkes not to go in the building just minutes before the incident that destroyed it."

"Yes, Eberts. What about it?" Bobby just stared at the man. He really didn't need his attitude right now.

The Official looked at him oddly. "Do I want to know?"

Bobby shrugged. "The kid called and made the suggestion. I didn't think waiting a few minutes would matter. Good thing, too. Fawkes would have ended up in small pieces if he'd been in there when those _birds_ went up." Bobby couldn't help but get in some commentary about the deception that put them at the warehouse.

"Eberts," the Official barked.

"Yes sir." Eberts picked up the phone and dialed for an inter-office connection. "Miss Silver, your presence is needed in the Official's office." He waited a moment and then hung up the phone. "She's on her way, sir."

A few minutes later, Alyx walked in. "Morning Hobbesy. What's up, boss?"

"Morning kid. Thanks for the heads-up last night. Saved our asses," Bobby said to her as she stopped beside him.

"You're welcome," she said automatically, then turned to him. "Huh? For what?" She sounded just a touch confused.

"Did you or did you not call Hobbes and tell him to keep Fawkes out of the warehouse last night?" Eberts asked her.

Alyx got this faraway look in her eyes as she searched her memory. "I really did that? I thought it was just another weird dream." She turned back to Hobbes. "You guys okay?"

"Yeah, kid. You had great timing, as always," Bobby said with a chuckle. He'd heard of sleepwalking, but sleep-phoning was a new one.

"Miss Silver, perhaps you should report this...um...incident to the Keeper," the Official said quietly. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he knew it was something unusual.

Alyx rolled her eyes. "Please. She'll just want to run more tests. I have better things to do."

"Miss Silver..."

"Look boss, you know we sometimes have weird dreams and you know the Keep can't figure out why. More tests aren't going to change that," Alyx said in all honesty. "If you want, I'll try and keep track of them, but I'm not going to spend the rest of the day down in the lab getting prodded over this." She shook her head and then patted Bobby on the arm as she turned to leave. "Everyone has dreams."

They watched as she shut the door quietly behind her.

"Huh," was the Official's response to Alyx's statement. "Good work, Hobbes. Get some sleep. I expect your full report first thing tomorrow," the Official said to him in dismissal.

Hobbes didn't bother to argue. Sleep was starting to feel more than a little necessary at this point. He'd deal with the weirdness his two partners generated on a daily basis at another time, when he was slightly more conscious.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alyx walked into Darien's apartment just after two in the afternoon to find him still snoozing peacefully, with the covers scrunched down to his waist. She couldn't help but notice the few new bruises he was sporting thanks to his adventure last night. Bobby had a couple of scrapes too, as well a bruise along one cheek, but neither of the men had been seriously hurt. Thankfully.

She set her bag on the sofa and, after kicking off her shoes, she gently lowered herself onto the bed and curled up against him. He muttered something in his sleep and wrapped an arm about her, pulling her closer to him. Alyx just smiled and sighed. It took a good thirty minutes before Darien began to achieve any sort of real consciousness. And there was quite a bit more mumbling before anything coherent came out of his mouth.

"Al...Alyx? That you?" He was still far more asleep than awake.

"You better hope so, 'cause if there's been another female sneaking into your bed you are in deep shit, bub," Alyx said, feigning a tone of anger.

That woke him up. "That's not what I meant." He shifted to look at her and figured out real quick she was kidding him. "And you know it." He gave her a quick kiss. "What are you doing here?"

"Couple reasons. Claire wants to see you after your adventure last night, as does the Official." Darien groaned, really not wanting to deal with either of them. "And I did some snooping last night. We have a problem with the access tunnel."

"Problem? Such as?" he yawned. He really needed a couple more hours of sleep, but knew it was better to wake up now than to spend the night awake and pacing his apartment.

Alyx went on to detail her little adventure of the previous evening and watched as he began to frown part way through. Worried she might have done something to screw up his plans, she said, "Dare, I was just trying to help."

"Hey, no problem," Darien said, meeting her eyes. "Great work in fact." He rolled off the bed and got to his feet. "You're sure about the gates?"

"I can only be positive about the first one, but based on the records I turned up, the other two should be similar. Perhaps increased security as we get further in, but I can't be sure," Alyx answered. She watched as he paced the floor of his apartment, shifting to sit up a bit.

He walked into the kitchen and pulled a soda from the fridge. Popping the top, he drank about half of it while thinking. He liked the idea of using the access tunnel. Without it, they'd have to make their way through several levels of guards and security getting down to the sublevel they needed, and then again coming back out. If they did this right, they should be able to get in and get out with a minimum of fuss. He had most of the gear they would need, though not here. Gear that would get him arrested just for owning it, federal badge or no.

He ran through the options for getting past the security gates, eliminating most of them for a variety of reasons. Explosives were out, too noisy in this case. He'd never cared for carrying around welding gear, not even the compact mini welders. It wasn't something he'd used more than once or twice in his career as a thief and, from Alyx's description of the gates, would take too long anyway. Maybe an acid to cut through the metal? Then he got an idea that was so simple he wondered why it had taken this long to think of it. Log it off to not quite enough sleep. "Feel up to a little preliminary B&E later?"

Alyx raised an eyebrow at him. "I guess." She couldn't help but wonder what was going on in his mind now.

He could hear the concern in her voice, so he set the soda down and walked back over to the bed. "Don't worry, we're just going to visit an old friend of mine."

Once Darien had gotten cleaned up and had something to eat, they had gone into the office. Claire checked him over to make sure he was no worse for wear after being nearly blown up, again. He and Bobby seemed to have this awful knack for having situations blow up in their faces. Heck, it had happened a couple of times with Alyx along, as well. Some days Darien felt like nothing more than a crash test dummy at a bombing range. Last night was a good example. He had been somewhat irritated when they found out what was really being sold in that warehouse, but he'd learned to expect crap like that. Bobby had been well and truly pissed.

Darien still had trouble believing that Alyx had almost no memory of calling Bobby. He must have thanked her a half dozen times before even getting to the office, until she'd told him point blank to shut up about it. To her, it was no big deal. She was just glad the two of them were all right. How it came about didn't really matter. Somehow he knew it was more of wanting to drop the subject of her dreams in general than her not really caring about this particular one. He knew how tough it had been on her the last month or so since, more often than not, he'd been the one to end up with the armful of near-hysterical woman when she woke up from another nightmare.

It was the first time he had nearly gone against her wishes. There had been some nights that were so bad that he'd been sorely tempted to tell Claire just because Alyx needed something to give her some peace. She needed just one night when some memory from her past didn't return to haunt her. But, at Alyx's request, he'd refrained from reporting anything and just did his best to help her himself.

When she was finally able to talk about some of it, he'd been horrified. Even with his life, including the hell he'd survived in prison, he'd been thoroughly shocked and disgusted by what had been done to her by her so-called _husband_.

He still found it hard to believe that she was the same person who had been married to that bastard, and he somehow knew she hadn't told him everything. That was all right; he still hadn't told her everything about his past, either, but at least he'd found someone he could talk to who didn't run away from him because of it. If anything, dealing with their mutual nightmares had brought them closer together.

By the time they arrived at the Keep, the Official had informed Claire about the incident the night before, and she tried to talk Alyx into doing a few tests. Alyx agreed to consider them, but refused to do anything immediately. Darien more than agreed with Alyx. What Claire wanted to do involved wiring Alyx up and watching her for several nights, to get an idea of what her mind did while she was sleeping.

Can you say 'annoying'? Especially when they, hopefully, had plans for the next several nights.

After leaving the Agency, they picked up a light dinner and he drove her to the storage place where he kept his less-than-legal equipment. Most of the stuff was pretty standard, but he did have a few pieces that were a little unusual. He wanted to get Alyx familiar with the tools, as well as give her a preliminary lock-picking lesson. He had a feeling that she would have very little trouble learning how to do this; her sense of touch was astonishing and he knew how fast she could learn. If it took more than a couple hours to teach her the basics he'd be very, very surprised.

He'd been pleasantly surprised that she'd thought to go do some recon on her own. He hadn't really expected her to help more than necessary -- she still tended to walk that fine line between legal and not and tended to fall on the legal side more often than not. Yet she seemed more than willing to not only help, but to patiently learn whatever he needed her to. He knew she could do combination locks, she had the hearing for it, but it was regular locks that were tricky. No two people did it exactly the same, even though the basics were taught the same way. He and Hobbes had talked about it a couple of times and they had decided it was a matter of how a person 'felt' that caused the differences. Even people with little or no sense of touch could learn how to pick a lock; it was just a matter of learning your own responses to the picks.

Darien had always been rather proud of his ability. He'd opened locks with a few less-than-orthodox items in the past, including a hairpin. Claire's hairpin most recently. He was betting Alyx would be even better than he was once she caught on.

He was right. Within an hour she had the basics down and could even open locks with both her hands and the picks quicksilvered. Once again he wished he'd met her when he was still a thief. Well, she was here now. That was all that mattered.

Now it was a matter of convincing her that she could actually do this all on her own. She saw this differently from her work at the Agency. That difference in mindset that he had to deal with. Doing a little breaking and entering for an assignment was one thing. Breaking into someone's house for a lark was something else entirely. Okay, so this wasn't going to be just for a lark, but it was going to be fun.

"You want me to go in first? Is this some weird test or something?" Alyx said to Darien as they stood outside the building.

"Trust me on this. Let me know when you're in." He tapped her on the temple.

She shook her head at him, convinced he was crazy to have her do this. He knew this guy. He knew the potential problems. He knew what this guy was capable of, not her. Granted she was good, but this did not feel the same as a job for the Agency for some undefined reason. "Dare..."

He kissed her lightly. "Trust me."

"Always," she said, then turned to walk to the house. She looked over the place as she approached it, noticing it reminded her of an old aircraft hanger. Curved roof over a big long box. There were few windows and the ones that were there were large and well above ground. The walls were stucco, painted a generic off-white. There was plenty of landscaping around the house, but none very close to the building itself; a good sign the owner was a bit of a security nut. Very few places to hide. The front door was around the side of the building and the security cameras were more than a little obvious. With one last glance back at Darien she quicksilvered and made her way to the door. Thankfully he hadn't decreed no extras for this one. In fact, he had told her she'd need them.

It was late, just after two in the morning, as she went to her knees and pulled out the quicksilvered lock picks by feel, going to work on the first of two locks. Once both were successfully unlocked, she opened the door and encountered the two security chains. After a moment to feel them with her mind, she unlocked them as well. Stepping inside, she shut the door quietly and walked over to the keypad, which was blinking to signal the door had been opened. Setting her hand over it without touching it, she entered it with her mind and disabled it without setting off the alarm.

Walking down the short hall, she emerged into the main room of the home, finding it looked pretty much the way Darien had described to her. Some things had been rearranged, but the computer was still easy to find. Going to it, she disabled the remaining security.

*All_ clear, Dare_.* She moved towards the counter and hopped up on it. The place was similar to her apartment in some ways. *_He has company_.* Alyx had trouble keeping her amusement out of her voice. Not only did he have company but he was still quite busy with them.

*_Blonde_?* Darien asked her.

*_Two of them_,* she sent back, trying not to laugh at the sounds coming from the bed directly across from of her. If that one chick wasn't faking she'd eat Darien's orange shirt. *_One of them is a real blonde, anyway_.*

Darien walked into the room on those thoughts and had to fight the urge not to burst out laughing. *_He must have just made a big score. That's about the only time he celebrates like this_.*

*_Well, he's trying for a big score anyway_.* Alyx had to admit the guy was creative though that position did look a tad uncomfortable.

Darien stopped dead, trying to keep in control. Between the sound effects and Alyx's comment he was on the verge of losing it completely. *_Where are you hiding anyway_?*

Alyx let the quicksilver flake away to reveal herself sitting on the counter. He could tell she was trying not to laugh as well. *_Please tell me I don't sound like that_?* She pointed to one of the women who was nearly yodeling her blatantly fake orgasm to the world at large.

Darien laughed out loud that time. It wasn't a problem though; the participants on the bed never even noticed. Regaining control took several minutes_. *All right. Time to break up this love-fest_.*

*_Awww. But I'm learning sooo much_,* Alyx commented with a grin.

Darien shook his head, trying not to lapse back into the laughter, then called out to the menage a trois, "Yo. Is this any way to treat company?"

Everyone on the bed froze. After some hurried rearranging and much squealing, the girls covered themselves. The man jumped off the bed to get into Darien's face with a shout. "What the hell are you doing, Fawkes?"

"Nice to see you too. Heard you cut a deal and only did six months for the sperm bank job. I still owe you another nine." Darien said, keeping the smile off his face. "We need to discuss some business, Manny," 

"How did you get in here this time? I changed my entire security system after your last little invasion." Manny sounded more than a little pissed off.

"I figured. That's why she broke in," Darien said, pointing back over his shoulder at Alyx who still sat with her legs crossed on the counter.

Manny leaned around Darien to look at Alyx. "Great, so you're teaching the business to a kid. Now get out and come back in the morning. I'm busy."

Alyx slipped off the counter and walked over to the two men. She looked Manny up and down, not the least bit embarrassed by his lack of clothing, then glanced over at the two women. "Hope he pays well, 'cause its obvious he has little else to offer."

Manny turned beet red and scrambled to find his pants, yanking them on with a growl of anger.

Alyx was still looking at the two blondes on the bed. "Get dressed and go home."

Neither argued and they hurriedly did as they were told.

"Fawkes, tell your...pet...to stop screwing with my life and get the hell out," Manny yelled, anger coming to the forefront at this point.

"Hmmm. No," Darien answered, moving over to a stray chair and sitting back in it while the two women made record time getting dressed and clearing out of the building.

Once they were gone, Manny spoke up again. "What the hell did I do this time, Fawkes? And what happened to the guy you were working with? Didn't know you were into cradle robbing."

Alyx handled the answers. "First off, I happen to be older than Darien, and second, Hobbes is our partner. I'm simply helping Dare out tonight."

Manny stared at her in disbelief. "Right. Older than Fawkesy here. Good one." Then he looked over at Darien again. "Now that you have officially ruined my night, what the hell do you want?"

"You still using the destabilizing compound?" Darien asked, finding this part of the conversation very familiar. He realized it had been almost exactly two years since his last visit to Manny.

"Why?" Manny asked suspicious.

"I've got a little job that needs it," Darien replied.

"Ah. So, what is it I'll get in return? A set-up and a few months in prison? No thanks." Manny turned away.

"Hey, Dare, wanna make a bet he has a copy of the formula on his hard drive?" Alyx said quietly. "How long do you think it will take me to find it? Thirty seconds?" Alyx began to walk towards the computer, fully intending to go hunting for it.

"Less," Darien answered. "You got through his security way too easy. His computer security is probably worse." He got to his feet so that Alyx could sit in front of the computer.

"Wait!" Manny shouted. It was bad enough half the damn town knew about the stuff he made; he really didn't want someone else to get the recipe. "How much do you need and when?" he sighed, giving in.

"That's better," Darien commented. "Don't worry, we'll pay for your time."

Alyx smiled, "Among other things."

"Shit," Manny commented, realizing he'd been backed into a corner.

Darien laughed. It was nice to get back at Manny, even just a little bit. He owed him so very much.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Bobby walked back to the van with a frown on his face. This was his second trip to Fawkes' place. When he hadn't found him here the first time he'd gone and checked the kid's place. He found her car there, but the apartment was empty. So he'd returned to Fawkes' place, this time letting himself in with the key he'd had made a while ago, and found no sign of either of them. Darien's cell phone was still sitting on the counter, plugged into the charger.

Now Hobbes sat in the van, wondering just what the hell his partners were up to. He was afraid it would be nothing good, nothing legal.

It was only a little after midnight, though. It was possible that they were just out having some fun at one of the places they hung out. Starting the van, he drove to the first of the places he knew they sometimes frequented. He wasn't really expecting to find them, but...Yeah, that but. Fawkes had gotten real good at slipping past him, and the kid, she was just good. Hard to sneak up on her to begin with -- watching her, whether or not she was with Fawkes, would only tick her off.

His mood growing darker by the moment, Hobbes spent a couple hours searching all the places he knew of around town, including the park and the assorted beaches the kid liked to hang out at. A little after three, he finally found them back at her place. Parking down the street, he got himself comfortable and watched the place for a while. He half expected them to leave again, but after a short time the lights went out and stayed out.

He got out and walked down the street, into the parking garage that was the lower floor of her apartment building. There he found both of their cars, parked side by side. "How cute," he muttered. Darien never left his car locked, so with only a moment's hesitation he began to search it. Fawkes was being his usual cautious self; beyond a few stray fast-food wrappers and condiments buried in corners, there was nothing. That was a little suspicious in and of itself, but Fawkes always had been a bit of a neat nick anyway so it didn't trouble Hobbes too much. Then he moved on to the kid's car.

It was the duffel in the trunk that bothered him the most. Not that it was unusual for the kid to have a duffel with spare clothes, but these clothes he recognized from the job at that private school north of the city. These were the kid's all-black working clothes, and stuffed in amongst them were a variety of tools, including a set of lock picks. It was looking more and more like Fawkes had swayed the kid to the 'dark side.'

"Damn it, Fawkes," Bobby complained into the darkened garage. "It's bad enough you can't keep your own life straight; do you have to screw up hers as well?"

With a soundless growl, Bobby returned everything to where he'd found it, headed back to the van, and spent a moment just sitting there trying to decide what he was going to do about this situation. He really, really wished he'd been wrong. Starting the engine, he drove for home. He'd need to get some sleep if he was going to spend tomorrow following Fawkes around.


	4. Chapter 4

*Part 4*

When Darien got in to the work the next morning, he wandered into the office he shared with Bobby and was surprised not to find him there. He debated looking for him for a moment, then decided to just get the boring duty of writing the report on the other night over with. Digging out a pen and the paperwork he needed, he sat in Bobby's chair and got to work on creating something vaguely resembling a proper report, with too few hours of sleep and not nearly enough coffee.

It had taken nearly an hour to come to an agreement with Manny, and in the end it was Alyx who had convinced him. She had pulled out a wad of cash that Darien had known nothing about and waved it under Manny's nose. He became real cooperative after that. Darien had been more than a little astonished, though he knew she had a source of income that he knew nothing about. Hell, he was pretty sure she was the one who'd arranged for the rather impressive sum to be deposited in an off-shore account in his name. If it wasn't for the gland and those nasty side effects, he'd have been long gone well before she had returned. So far he hadn't even touched the money, though he did have a few plans he was considering.

When they'd arrived back at her apartment, Alyx had been truly tired. After changing, they had both simply curled up in her bed. Alyx seemed to fall asleep almost immediately, but he'd lain there thinking for a while. Some of the comments Manny had made caused him to really think about what he was doing, getting her involved in this job. With any job outside of work. Bobby's commentary had also come to mind, and it made him wonder if Alyx truly hadn't known what he'd been doing at least subconsciously.

Not for the first time, he wondered what the hell it was she saw in him. Shifting on the bed, he buried his face in her hair, causing her to mutter something in her sleep.

"Dare?" She woke up just enough and he groaned. He hadn't intended to wake her.

"Sorry. Go back to sleep."

She rolled then so that he could see her. "Stop worrying about me. I'm a big girl and can make my own choices."

Darien shook his head. "It's not that simple." It never was these days, and that was part of the problem.

"Yes. It is," she said quietly. "When it involves you, it is that simple for me. Now go to sleep. The 'Fish will bitch if you're in too late."

He'd opened his mouth to say something else but her hand had come up to cover it. He had decided that, for the time being, he would let it rest.

He had finished the report and was about to sign his name to it when Bobby flung the door open. He had the Keeper in tow.

"Morning, Hobbes," Darien said, hoping to forestall whatever explosion was about to come.

"Don't 'good morning' me, partner. Your wrist. Now." Hobbes had a full mad on and was determined to catch Fawkes out on whatever his extracurricular activities were.

"Huh? Why?" Darien was truly able to sound confused. He had no idea what set off Bobby this time.

"Darien." Claire's voice was doing that tone that meant she was pretty angry as well.

With a glare at both of them he held out his right wrist for their examination.

Claire counted up the segments and then turned to Bobby. "He is ahead, maybe, one segment."

"Care to explain how?" Bobby asked him, his voice tightly controlled.

Darien knew exactly what it was from, but wasn't about to tell them that he and Alyx had been out casing a place, so he went back to his fall-back story. One that he was pretty sure Alyx would back him up on if asked. "Ummm, yeah. Well..." He did his best to look embarrassed. Not all that difficult; all he had to do was a remember an occasion when it had actually happened and the attendant embarrassment surged right to the surface. "You know."

Hobbes shook his head. "No, I don't. Explain it for me."

"Hobbes, it is kinda private." Darien rubbed the back of his head and refused to meet their eyes.

That's when Claire caught on. "Oh. Ooooh. Never mind Bobby. It was nothing suspicious." She was trying not to smile. They had had the little talk about quicksilver and sex, and she didn't know who had been more embarrassed by it -- her or him. Alyx had taken it in stride. She found the whole situation rather sweet and figured he'd get the hang of it eventually, just as she would with her control issues. "Darien, if you need to talk about it..."

"It's handled. Just, well..." He shrugged. "It happens."

"Fawkes, what are you talking about?" Hobbes sounded more than a little confused. He come in here expecting to catch Fawkes out on using the gland off hours and instead...he wasn't sure what the heck was going on.

Claire grabbed Bobby by the arm and pulled him aside, then whispered something into his ear. He glanced over at Darien and then snorted. "No shit?" When Claire released him he turned to Darien and said, "Sorry, partner."

Claire tugged on his arm and got him moving out of the room. "I'll see you later, Darien." Bobby gave him one last look and then allowed himself to be pulled from the room. When they were well away from the office he snapped. "Damn it, Keep, I don't believe a word of it. He's up to something and I'm going to find out what."

"Bobby, no matter what you think of her, Alyx would not let Darien do anything bad. That is one line I know she would not cross," Claire said, trying to get him to understand without revealing anything specific.

"Claire, before this whole mess I would've agreed with you, but now? The kid has changed too much and Fawkes has a lot of pull with her." Bobby shook his head, feeling a bit calmer now. "You've seen them together. Do you really think he couldn't persuade her into almost anything?"

Claire wanted to disagree, but found herself unable to. She suspected that Alyx was having far more problems than she was willing to admit to, and the few things she did know for sure led her to believe in the possibility that Bobby could be right. ''I don't know, Bobby." she admitted reluctantly. "But what are you going to do?"

"The only thing I can. Stop them," Bobby answered.

Darien signed the report, left the office, and handed it over to Eberts, who glanced over it quickly before burying it in a file. "Anything today?"

"Not as of yet," Eberts replied.

Darien nodded and left, heading to Alyx's office. He figured that Bobby might very well go after her next. Might as well give her some warning that Hobbes was on the warpath. He found her in her office, hand resting on her computer, eyes closed. He didn't for an instant think she was asleep. In fact, she was probably working on something rather complicated if she was using her shortcut method to do it.

He sat down on the oversized futon sofa she had across from her desk. He knew full well that she knew he was here, but he wouldn't make her refocus on him until she was ready. He did that to her once, by accident, and it had ended his plans for the rest of that evening. She'd ended up with a killer headache and been forced to take some of those pain meds she hadn't really needed since gaining full control. These days she only needed them when she overused her powers and ended up with an overuse headache. Claire still hadn't come up with a painkiller that would ease the pain without knocking her out. Not that Alyx complained about it. It was hard enough to define the pain, like the headaches he got from the gland. The pain was real, but it originated from such a unique cause that the solution had to be just as unique. In his case, it was the counteragent. For Alyx, some homemade painkillers. Claire had been able to reduce the side effects over the months, but so far there was no way to remove them completely.

She'd tried to explain to him what had happened without success. There was no way he could really understand. They had developed a signal system so that if she needed to be brought out they could do it without harming her. Right now it was unnecessary, so he just waited for her to return to herself in her own time. It was only a few minutes later than she sighed and opened her eyes to look at him.

"What now?" She had picked up on his concern, but had been unable to spare the focus to do more than that.

"Hobbes," he answered, getting up and moving over to her. "Interrogated me this morning about off-hours quicksilver use. Even dragged the Keep in to check me."

"Hmmm. Not surprised." She swiveled her chair to look at him. "Does it change anything?"

Darien seriously considered the question for several minutes, but came to no decision. "I don't know, yet."

Alyx nodded. "Fine. I'll meet Merrick and do a bit more research. Do you mind if I go out to... the place?" She wanted to avoid specifics just in case. She knew her office wasn't bugged and that no one was currently listening outside the door, but better safe than sorry.

"Sure. Why?" Now that she knew about the place, he didn't see any reason why she shouldn't make use of the equipment there.

"I'm going to see about rigging up some gear to make work a bit easier." While she was nearly infallible in spotting active electronics, the guys weren't, and she'd been mulling over some ideas on how to change that. With the gear Darien had, plus a few more pieces that she either owned or could pick up, she might be able to create a primitive version. This little job would be a good place to see if the idea was even feasible.

Darien just looked at her, wondering what was going on in her mind this time. He had figured out a long time ago that she was way smarter than him, and he was no slouch in the brains department. He had also figured out she had some knowledge about computers, but had no idea exactly how much. She had obviously managed to absorb more than enough science to be able to assist Claire with the quicksilver research.

In fact, she was able to learn and understand pretty much anything she chose to. Claire had been studying those cuffs Alyx had designed to react to quicksilver, and was more than impressed by the design. Darien still occasionally had shudders thinking about those damn things. His concern was that one day they would use them on him, to keep him in control, instead of just studying them out of what seemed, to him, a perverse sense of curiosity.

"Do I want to know?" he asked her finally.

"Later. I'm still in the 'Is it feasible?' stage." She smiled at him. "Take Hobbes to lunch and do some of that male bonding you've been neglectful of lately." She took one of his hands. "You need to spend more time with him. He misses you."

Darien was surprised; he didn't think she'd notice anything like that. "I...I guess I've been more worried about you."

She shrugged. "Go spend some time with him. I'll deal with Merrick and do some work. Richards will wait another night."

"Alyx..." He didn't want her to get in any deeper than necessary.

"Don't start. Stop by later if you want, but you don't need to. I'll be fine," she assured him as she got to her feet. "I'm off to the Keep. Go talk to him."

Darien walked with her out the door. "Yeah, guess that might be a good idea." He watched Alyx continue down the hall as he stood outside his and Bobby's office. He hadn't really thought about the amount of time he'd been spending with Alyx since she'd come back, and now that he did he realized it had been a lot. Not that she presumed to take precedence in his life, but he'd just felt she needed the help and had been more than willing to provide it. He didn't want to risk losing her again. As a result, he had been spending less and less time with Bobby, and he realized he missed it. There were just some things that you could only do with another guy, and Bobby had become his friend over the months he'd been here. He didn't want to screw that up; he couldn't go back to just being partners with him. It would feel wrong.

His little escapades after hours, if Bobby really found out about them -- well, he wasn't sure what would happen. Based on Bobby's attitude the last few days, he suspected that he wouldn't understand, wouldn't even try to. Unlike Alyx. Damn. He didn't want this to turn into a case of choosing one friend over the other. He needed -- yes, needed -- each of them, and for very different reasons.

Poking his head into the office, he found Bobby sitting behind his desk grumbling over some paperwork. When he didn't lift his head, Darien entered and shut the door behind him. "Hobbes?"

"What, Fawkes? I'm busy." Hobbes kept his head down and focused on the papers before him, even if he wasn't really seeing them anymore.

"Want to grab some lunch?" Darien figured he might as well just say it and see what kind of reaction he'd get.

Bobby's head snapped up in surprise. He couldn't remember the last time he and Fawkes had gone out to lunch together. He was usually off with the kid, probably getting in a little afternoon nookie. "Why? Trying to get me off your back?" Yeah, he was more than a little suspicious of his motives.

"No. I...do I really need a reason?" Darien slouched down in the chair on the opposite side of the desk from Hobbes and watched him.

"These days? Yeah, you do." Hobbes kept his tone gruff. He didn't want or need Fawkes kissing his ass just to get him off his back.

All right, he knew Hobbes was pissed at him for something, suspected he was up to something, but he was hoping that they could still be friends even if he was an inveterate troublemaker. "Look, I know I've been spending a lot of time with Alyx, but that doesn't mean I'm not your friend anymore."

Bobby shook his head. He had always known that if those two got together, he'd end up with the short end. Hell, he'd been there himself a few times. He knew what it was like and yeah, it did hurt a bit, but he understood. As much as he could anyway. And on top of that, the kid had been trying to straighten out her head. Fawkes had been a big influence in that area. "It's not that. Well, not too much, anyway."

"Then what? The Keeper still shooting you down?" Maybe not the best choice of questions, but he hoped Hobbes would take it in the spirit it was meant. As a friendly ribbing.

He did. "Yeah. I think she's got a thing for the kid's brother. Not that I can blame her or nothing."

"Bobby, don't you dare. If there was anything going on that way between them, it was out of convenience and nothing more." Darien knew the two Keepers had gotten close, but given everything that had happened, plus the fact that Michael was gone and not likely to return, he suspected that Claire and he had been nothing more than mutual sources of comfort. For a long time he had suspected that Claire was more than just a little attracted to Hobbes, but with that stupid 'no fishing' rule Hobbes bandied about, she had been unwilling to allow him too close out of fear of being hurt.

Hobbes snorted. "Doesn't matter." He glared down at the paperwork on his desk and realized that he would rather not do any of it now. No matter how necessary he knew it was, he still hated doing it. He'd much rather be out doing something, even if it was another boring stakeout. He looked over at Fawkes and decided that, even though it was a little early, he would like to go to lunch. "Where for lunch?"

Darien smiled. It was good to have his friend back, even if only for a little while. "You pick."

"Trying to suck up to me, huh?" He was grinning when he said it.

"No, last time we went out, I picked. It's your turn," Darien answered easily.

Hobbes was surprised that Fawkes could remember, but didn't mind. He knew just the place to go. "Let's get out of here, then." Bobby got to his feet and moved towards the door with Darien trailing behind him. "I'm still gonna find out what you've been up to at night."

Darien groaned. "Please. If it were anything that bad, I'd have been caught by now."

Hobbes laughed. He had a point.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alyx spent the afternoon down in the Keep, assisting Claire in her work and doing some of her own research on ancillary subjects. Her relationship with Claire was on even shakier ground than Darien and Bobby's. She did understand why Claire had done what she had, but her stubbornness kept her from saying anything. So instead they did their best to work together and keep the progress on the gland and counteragent moving forward.

The inhibitor they'd developed was working better than either of them hoped, and they were working on a new version that should gain Darien as much as a month between shots. The biggest concern was how dependent his system had become on both the quicksilver and the counteragent. Although he was handling it well now, his addiction to the counteragent could and would progress. Extending the time between shots might cause more harm than good. While neither of them wanted him to build a resistance any sooner than necessary, they also did not want to send him into withdrawal, and there was no way to gauge where the line was.

There was also the risk that slowing the production of the gland too much could harm either Darien or the gland itself. There was no easy way to judge if his system had become dependent on the quicksilver the way Alyx's had. They did know that they would have to break both addictions in order to remove the gland safely. Cutting off both the quicksilver and the counteragent too suddenly could send his system into shock and kill him.

The removal of the gland was becoming more and more complicated the longer he lived with it. There were days Claire worried that by the time she had a viable solution it would be too late and the effects would not be reversible no matter what they did. The files Alyx had managed to retrieve were turning out to be extremely helpful. Claire still wondered what exactly she had done to get them, but Alyx wouldn't talk about it. Would only say that it was more than worth it.

It was shame that Arnaud had escaped from them. She would have really loved to discuss the counteragent in detail with him, but his notes and formulas would do. She hoped to have a new counteragent to test within three months at most.

Alyx stretched and turned to look over at Claire, who was grumbling at the monitor before her with a frown on her face. "Anything I can help with?" she asked quietly.

Claire turned to look at her. "Not right now. Did you get to that formula I wanted you to look at?"

"Yeah, I put my notes in. I didn't see any mistakes, I just made some suggestions of alternatives that might work." She shrugged. "It's not my area of expertise."

Claire snorted. "You caught on more than fast enough. There are days I envy you your memory."

Alyx turned off her monitor and got to her feet. "Don't. The disadvantages far outweigh any benefit. I'd gladly go back to the way I was before all this." She waved her hand about. "I was more than smart enough before."

Claire looked her over. "Are you still having problems sleeping?" She kept her tone mild, not wanting to scare Alyx off.

For a moment Alyx wanted to tell Claire it was none of her business, but... "Yeah."

"I could prescribe a sleeping pill if you like?" Claire offered. Lack of sleep would eventually do far more harm than a simple sleeping pill.

Alyx shook her head. "Thanks, but how much would it help? After two nights you'd have to prescribe a new one because my system has adapted. Anyway, they wouldn't solve the problem. I have no trouble falling asleep. I...I've been having nightmares. Memories actually." She didn't like admitting things like this to Claire, to the Keeper. She didn't want to give 'them' any more power over her than they already wielded.

Claire watched her for a moment, debating whether or not to push a bit more, and decided against it for now. This was more than the two of them had spoken about something this casually in a long time, but Claire still would not allow herself to open back up too much. Their little war about her loyalties when Alyx had come back had divided not only the two of them but herself and Darien as well, and it hurt.

"True. If you have any serious problems, let me know." She gave a hint of a smile as she watched Alyx pick up her backpack. "Skipping out early today?" She figured Alyx was going to head out and spend some time with Darien.

"Actually, I've been here since five-thirty this morning. I'm done for the day." She tried to smile at Claire, but failed miserably and she knew it. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Have a good evening, Alyx." Claire said as she walked to the door. Alyx gave her a wave and the door slid shut behind her. She would just have to be patient and wait for Alyx to learn to trust again.

Alyx tossed her bag in her car and headed out to the meet with Manny Merrick. The guy was expecting Darien, but she didn't think he'd argue too much, since she had the cash. She was right. After a few moments casual conversation, the exchange was made. Manny walked off a few thousand richer, and she had two canisters of the destabilizing compound, which should solve the access tunnel problem. Or at least the first part of the problem. She was going to work on the rest of it now.

Heading out to the storage place, she used the keys Darien had given her and, after parking her car inside, went to work on the gear he had hidden there. He had some interesting pieces of electronics, used for overriding a variety of security systems using simple alligator clips and blank mag cards. They would generate random codes until one matched that allowed for the access they needed. What she wanted to do was combine several pieces that could be used as a standalone item or in conjunction the computer headset she had. Ultimately she was going to need her wireless connection in order to send the information she'd be retrieving someplace where it would do some good.

Pulling out her set of miniature tools, she got to work on tearing apart and recombining the various electronics until she had something close to what she was looking for. It wasn't perfect, so after glancing at her watch she headed out to pick up a couple more pieces that she could use. If Darien had any inkling that she knew about these places he'd probably freak, but aside from the government and cheesy 'spies are us' stores, these were the best places to purchase the type of gear she was after with the quality she needed.

She smiled as she pulled up down the street from the location. If Darien would freak, the Official would have a coronary. Hobbes would drag her off for a discussion that would surely involve various threats and include commentary about jail time and extended visits to the padded room. It was only the fact no one could imagine her coming to a place like this that kept her from being discovered.

She pressed the buzzer for Open Sesame Enterprises and heard a cheery, "Sweetpea, where the hell have you been?"

She opened the door at the buzz and walked in to see the smiling owner. "You know. Here and there."

"What do you need tonight?" he asked, knowing that when she came in it was for business.

She held out her headset for his perusal. "I need a comp pad that will connect to this and into other systems. It has to be able to take high-end computer connections, even if it's just an override hack connection." She looked over the items in the room. "Preferably with a display."

"Sweetpea, you don't ask for much do you?" he said, heading to the back room with her trailing along. She was one of the few customers he allowed in the back, and only because she knew her gadgets like few others. "What are you trying to do?"

She thought about how to describe it without giving too much away. "High-end, multi-layered security. I have to travel light, so I'm trying to rig one item with the various hook-ups to do it all, instead of carrying multiple crack pads."

He nodded. "I've had a few others trying to do that without much success. If you're successful, I can probably find a market for you."

"I'll consider it." She looked over the items he put out for her perusal. She picked up one that looked like a modified PDA and examined it carefully. She poked through the assorted connectors he had and tried a few. After playing with several, she found what she was looking for. "Can I borrow your comp? I just want to check the connection."

He considered for a moment, then nodded. He suspected she was something other than the typical thief he got in here, and knew she was damn honest. She wouldn't go poking into his system. As he watched, she swiftly made the connections and powered up the gear she had. When she smiled, he knew he'd made a sale.

She didn't even ask. As soon as she had disconnected everything she began to count out bills and, as always, overpaid. It had become routine, and was fairly standard in this business. Those that paid well would get forgotten when the occasional bust came his way. For all that she was difficult to forget, he knew he would have no memory of her when the cops came asking about her. And they would, eventually. They always did.

She left with a smile and a wave and headed back to the storage place to finish up her little project. Now that she had this last piece, she should be able to cobble together something that would get the job done without having to switch back and forth between four or five different pieces of gear.

What she really needed to do was sit down and map out that computer program she'd envisioned. If she did it right, she could program something that would handle everything she was trying to jury-rig with this hardware and be able to control the systems remotely. That would be sweet, and very useful to the guys on jobs that she was unavailable for. The idea was to duplicate some of her unconventional skills at finding and controlling electronics, security systems, power systems, and the like, with one computer, one program.

First things first. Take down Nate Richards, then start chewing up space writing the program.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lunch had gone better than Darien hoped, and over the course of the afternoon back at the office Hobbes loosened up even more. Darien made a point of not mentioning Alyx, and did his best to keep their conversation light and away from subjects, such as his extracurricular activities, that would cause more than a little discomfort between them.

Hobbes was quite surprised when, at the end of the day, Darien said he had no plans for the evening. Now, being the suspicious sort that he was, he figured Fawkes was just trying to get him off his back.

When he pointed this out to Darien, he just grinned and said, "Yeah, so?"

Hobbes shook his head. "Go meet the kid."

"Can't, she has plans." It was true enough as far as it went. "Come on, Hobbes, not that long ago you were trying to drag me out on the town. Now that I want to go, you're trying to send me home."

Darien did that look, that pitiful look that just made you want to pet him, and Hobbes caved. "All right, but go change into something decent. I'll pick you up at eight."

Darien looked in the mirror, making a few final adjustments to his hair, and then looked at himself. The outfit he was wearing was something Alyx had picked for him. It wasn't all that different from the stuff he usually wore, just a bit better quality. Black linen slacks with matching black belt, a cream-colored, long-sleeved dress shirt -- tucked in, amazingly enough -- and his black leather coat. Her commentary on this outfit had included the words 'drool-worthy,' which he had found most amusing. He couldn't see it, but didn't argue with her about it. His sense of style was more than a little quirky, so when it came to buying real clothes he tended to rely on others.

He had to admit that he liked the way the silk felt, and the slacks were cut perfectly. Most days he saw no reason to get dressed up. Hell, if he could get away with hole-filled jeans and his barfly shirt at work, he'd do it. He was a big believer in comfort, and stuff like this just wouldn't be comfortable on a daily basis. Though he was seriously considering picking up more silk. Maybe some for Alyx as well.

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on his door. He opened it to see Hobbes standing there in what could only be called a modified Miami Vice look. A black t-shirt, framed by a dark brown sport coat and matching slacks. He actually looked almost relaxed.

"You ready, Fawkes?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Darien answered, shutting and locking the door and following Bobby down the hallway. "We're not heading to that place in Chinatown, are we?"

"Nah, thought you'd be a bit more comfortable at one of my other haunts." He looked his partner over. "Let me guess, the kid picked the clothes."

"How'd you know?" Darien asked, surprised, as he climbed into the passenger seat of the van.

"Fawkes, you're wearing a hundred-dollar silk shirt. There is no way you'd think of buying that for yourself." Bobby started the engine and after a moment pulled out into traffic. He tried not to laugh at the look of shock on his partner's face. Good thing he didn't mention the cost of those slacks he was wearing. The shirt was high quality, but those slacks were top of the line and very expensive. Not something Darien would ever consider getting for himself. "So, Fawkes, have you thought about your cover story?"

"Cover story?" Darien had no idea what Bobby was talking about.

Bobby sighed. "Fawkes, you can't tell the girls you're a secret agent. You remember, I'm in textiles..."

Darien nodded. He did remember. He also remembered getting 'milked' by the Chinese shortly after learning about it. Not the most pleasant of recollections. He thought about it for a moment and came up with an idea. "How about security?"

"What do you mean?" Bobby asked.

"Installing security systems. High end ones, not that ADT crap." Darien kinda liked the idea.

"Which would explain your knowledge of lock picks and other nefarious means of gaining illegal entry into places." Bobby was smiling. It was a pretty good choice. "How do we know each other?"

"Ummm." Darien was drawing a blank. It wasn't like he'd been told there was going to be a test just for a night out, after all.

"Come on Fawkes, this one's easy. You installed the security at one of my factories." Bobby offered. "We discovered we had some mutual interests, including the lovely ladies, and it explains the lack of knowledge about each others' business."

"Bobby, do you ever really relax?" Darien had a feeling that Bobby enjoyed these nights out because he got to 'be' someone else for a little while. That Bobby Hobbes, government agent, got shoved aside and the person Bobby wanted to be came out.

"Fawkes, relaxing at the wrong moment is the fastest way to get oneself killed," Bobby said to him. "Do I relax? Yeah. Do I let my guard down? Never."

Darien shook his head at that. He could never live that way, but that was him. Bobby was...well, Bobby. As they pulled into a parking space, Darien looked around for the place Bobby was dragging him to.

Once on the sidewalk, Hobbes led him down the street and then down a stairwell that was nearly hidden by a crowd hanging around what was obviously an upscale club. "Uh, Hobbes, this does not look my style." The crowd standing outside was decidedly goth, and both he and Hobbes would stand out like sore thumbs inside.

Bobby snorted. "Give me some credit for taste. The place we want is back this way." He led Darien through a tunnel that ran around the side of the building, to a set of double doors outlined with neon tubing. "This is the place we want."

Darien was pleasantly surprised when they entered. The place actually looked like a bar. All the usual oddities hanging on the walls: photos, old license plates, record albums, blow up dolls, among other things. There were TV's everywhere, some showing the inevitable sporting events and others showing a variety of prime time shows. He could just make out a couple of pool tables in back past the bar. The place was filled with a wide selection of patrons. Neither he nor Hobbes looked out of place, either by age or dress. Some were dressed casually, with jeans and t-shirts, while others were dressed to the nines. Most, like them, fell somewhere between. There were a few cell phones and laptops sprinkled throughout the place, but for the most part the people were just being people. The music was canned, but with a good sound system and real music, not top forty pop crap.

As they approached the bar, several girls appeared out of the crowd and sidled up to Bobby. "Girls," Bobby said with a grin. "Long time no see."

Darien watched in amazement as all three lovelies immediately fell under Bobby's spell. One thing Bobby could do was mesmerize just about any female that he wanted. The only ones he'd seen resist his partner's charms were Claire and Alyx. He shook his head and then ordered a bottle of Corona, which the bartender swiftly got for him. Hanging out at places like this was something he used to do a lot of. Okay, maybe not places quite this upscale -- that right there said something about the quality of his life -- but since the gland, he'd mostly stayed away from everything he used to do. He had learned the hard way that he couldn't go back, that he wasn't the same person anymore. He might use the information and the contacts from his pre-gland days on occasion, but he found slipping back into that old life of his was an uncomfortable fit these days.

He watched the crowd and thought about it. Seriously looked at himself. Yeah, it could be argued he was going back to his old ways, what with these little 'Robin Hood' stunts, but he was helping people by doing it. What was really amusing was that nether Bobby nor the Official would have a problem with it if it was a real mission. Take this Nate Richards -- the FCC, the IRS, and the local police were at the top of a long list, all trying to gather enough information on the guy to bring him down, but without much success. Richards had some really good lawyers that were fully capable of stonewalling the whole thing until the day Richards died.

If he could just get into the computer system, he was sure he could find the trail -- or rather, Alyx could. The others he had managed to take down had had actual paper trails he was able to follow. This guy was good, and he had made sure any paper trails that did exist led elsewhere, to holding companies that were, supposedly, owned by others. There had to be a connection, there was a connection, he had just been unable to find it. That's why he had turned to Alyx. Somehow he didn't think Eberts, who was also damn good with computers, would be as willing to help.

"Fawkes," Bobby said for the third time, finally succeeding in breaking Darien out of the brood he had fallen into. "If you'd pay attention a bit, you might notice the brunette making eyes at you." Bobby pointed with his chin at the woman just a few tables away.

"Bobby, I don't know..." Darien began.

"Fawkes, the kid ain't the jealous type. Have some innocent fun. Get a life." Bobby gave him a shove in the direction of the woman who smiled up at Darien.

Figuring what the hell, he walked over to her and introduced himself.

Bobby shook his head. "And he thinks I need to loosen up." He turned back to the girls that he was with and picked up the conversation where it had left off.


	5. Chapter 5

*Part 5*

__

Alyx realized she must have passed out somewhere along the way, because when she came to she was lying half on a bed, in a room she didn't recognize, being raped. The piece of slime was leaning on his hands over her, grunting and panting his way to climax. Dear lord, she had forgotten how much it hurt to have this done to oneself. At least this time she wasn't afraid to strike back. Using the heel of her hand she slammed the guy in the nose, causing him to jerk back and off of her. Once he was far enough away she lashed out with her foot, kicking him as hard as she could in the stomach. He doubled over and dropped to the floor, much to the amusement of the other men in the room.

Alyx rolled off the bed and into a crouch

"Ah, hell," Alyx groaned in a shaky voice, as consciousness returned with a suddenness that was almost painful. She found herself huddled in between her bed and the wall, backed all the way into the corner by the window. She was getting really tired of this. All she could think of was that at least this time it hadn't been Jess she'd been dreaming about. No, her mind had moved on to her next less than favorite experience in being raped. The slavers.

It took several minutes to convince her heart rate to come back down and to stop shaking enough to even uncurl her legs. Once she had finally calmed down, she forced herself to stand and glanced over at the clock sitting on her headboard, 2:30 in the morning. Two hours of sleep and it wasn't likely that she'd be getting any more. She hurriedly straightened her bed, restoring some sort of order to the mangled mess she'd made of it. She was really starting to hate the thing anyway.

Running her hands through her hair, she went to her kitchen and pulled a bottle of water out of her fridge. She spent a long moment staring at the assortment of bottles next to the sink. She took a variety of vitamins and supplements just on principle. Given her weird metabolism and tendency to skip meals for whatever reason, she figured it better to err on the side of caution. Mixed in with the over-the-counter stuff were her pain meds, some of which went back to her early days here and were very potent. They all had the lovely side effect of knocking her out cold for several hours after taking them.

For the last couple of weeks she had been seriously debating taking them just to guarantee a few hours of undisturbed sleep at night. She walked over to the sink and picked up one particular bottle. After only a moment's hesitation, she opened it and shook two into the palm of her hand.

She stared down at the pair of pills for a long moment. With them she could probably get some sleep for a change, but what about tomorrow night? And the night after that? With a sigh, she returned the pills to the bottle and then tossed the bottle into the trash. She was screwed up enough without having to become dependent on a drug to get through her nights. She took herself and her water out to the living room and sat on her couch, the TV coming on seemingly of its own volition. After a few minutes of surfing she decided on an old black and white film that was oddly ironic. '_The Invisible Man_."

When her alarm went off just before six she was already dressed for work. She'd already done a longer than usual workout and showered. She shut the alarm off, grabbed her bag, and left for the office.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Darien was standing in the middle of his apartment going through the pockets of his leather jacket. He was amazed at the number of business cards and scraps of paper with names and phone numbers on them. After talking for while with that brunette, Cindy, they had ended up in back taking over one of the pool tables. From there, the evening had gotten interesting. He knew he had drunk one -- all right, several -- too many beers, and he had played way more pool than he had in ages, but it had been fun.

He then came across the bills and smiled. He hadn't wanted to take their money, but it was house rules of a sort. The girls had insisted that he had earned the money and quite a few of them had been quite good with the cues. He suspected that some of them had let him win, based on the phone numbers written on some of the bills. Some had even more suggestive notes written upon them as well.

He shook his head. He stuffed about half the cash into his sock drawer and the rest into his pocket. The notes and business cards he just left in a pile on his table for now. It wasn't likely he'd ever call any of them. He'd had fun, but that was all it was, fun. Bobby had expressed his surprise at how he had taken everything in stride and actually relaxed. Darien would be the first to admit that places like that tended to make him uncomfortable these days, but last night he had found it a bit easier and he figured it was at least partially because his control over the gland had improved in certain situations.

Hell, he could still remember the problems he'd had when he was near Kate. At least she had been willing to find it more amusing than anything else. Then of course there was the disappointment when he found out she was otherwise engaged, literally. There hadn't been a whole lot of options available since then. Yeah, there was Allianora, but that couldn't be called anything more than a moment's lust that got out of hand on both their parts, with serious consequences for both of them. She had been the epitome of his experience with romantic relationships. Not only had most of his past relationships been ended by the women, but a fair number had ended badly. Mostly his fault he'd admit; he had never managed to tell any of the women in his life the truth about who and what he was, so there were always elaborate lies that tied them together. Casey hadn't been the first to catch him out and then leave him, she just happened to get stuck with the meltdown of his life.

But now, now things were so very different. Yeah, when asked he'd lied about what he did to the girls at the bar; just as Bobby had about his job. Not that it mattered. Even if he went back, with or without Bobby, it would be just another night of fun. He had to admit being able to attract the attention of a group of young ladies was nice, but none of them were Alyx. Maybe he'd take her with him the next time and they could spend the evening seeing who could collect the most phone numbers. That thought actually made him grin.

Grabbing his keys, he headed out. It was another day of work at the Agency, after all.

And what an exciting day it is was. Once again there was very little needing their attention, just some follow-up work on the Blackhawks that had blown up in their faces the other night. The group selling them was part of a known organization, but how they had procured the items and to whom they were selling them were mysteries. The identity of the group that had smashed their way inside in an attempt, it was assumed, to steal the items, was an even bigger mystery, and they were coming up empty.

He and Bobby had lunch while out, chatting amicably about the night before, and then headed back to the office with no more information than when they had left. Oh, they had been able to eliminate a few possibilities, but they had no real idea of what had gone on in that warehouse or what deals had been made prior to that night. All the potential witnesses were quite dead, and the Army was denying that they were missing any of their Blackhawks. In other words, stonewalling them.

All throughout the day, Bobby kept trying to subtly pump Darien for information as to his whereabouts on several nights this past week. Darien caught on fast enough and didn't give anything of importance away. Saying he'd been visiting an old friend the night they had invaded Manny's place. True enough. He just didn't explain why they had gone visiting. When Bobby mentioned lock picks, Darien had to wonder exactly what he was fishing for. The only way he could know that Alyx was the proud owner of a set of lock picks, among other more common burglar tools, would be if he had gone through her car and dug through her duffel in the trunk.

Darien couldn't believe he'd do that. Go through his car, yeah. That's part of the reason he kept it unlocked and nothing of value in it. It wasn't likely anyone would steal it for a joyride, and his locks wouldn't get stripped every time Hobbes wanted to make sure he'd been behaving. Hobbes checking up on him hadn't happened in a long, long time, and he really wondered what he had done to make Hobbes suspicious this time.

Arriving back at the building, he stuck his head into Alyx's office to see her frowning at her computer and looking tired.

"Hey you," she said, trying to put some enthusiasm in her voice but failing miserably. "Have a good time last night?"

"Yes, actually. It was fun," Darien answered, sitting on the edge of her desk as usual. "How about you?"

"I accomplished what I set out to do." She lowered her voice. "I'm as ready as I can be. When do you want to go?"

He toyed with the items on her desk as he thought about it. Did he still want to do this? Yes. Should they wait and hope Hobbes backed down? No. Bobby was too damn stubborn, and every day they waited meant a better chance work would pick up and leave them no free time to complete this little job. Alyx could be pulled away for some out-of-town job at any time. Now that she was reasonably stable, other agencies were sure to be clamoring for her help.

He'd found out that was part of the deal to allow her to stay with the Agency. If she was needed, truly needed, by an outside group, she would be sent. It meant that the Agency got partial credit for every mission she did for someone else. It also meant they got paid for the inconvenience of losing her, while she did the work, and paid well.

He didn't like it much, but it was better than her being permanently reassigned to the CIA, FBI, ATF, or any of the other agencies she had done some small jobs for. He lifted his head and looked at her. "Tonight."

She nodded. "I've a few arrangements to make. Dinner at my place?"

"Perfect. You feeling all right?" He had noticed she looked tired, more tired than usual.

"Well, enough. I'm out of here. I'll catch a nap and see you later." She packed away her laptop and stood holding her bag as she spoke.

He laid a hand on her arm. "Alyx... Bad night?"

"Yeah," she admitted.

"Maybe you should talk to Claire," he said quietly, hoping she wouldn't get angry.

"I did, but other than sleeping pills there is not much she can do. Falling asleep isn't the problem, as you well know." She moved closer to him and he wrapped his arms about her.

"Damn. It'll get better." He tipped her head up to look in her eyes. "You know that, right?"

"I know," she laughed. "It can't get all that much worse." She gave him a quick kiss and slipped away from him. "Don't be late. I have some toys to show you." Opening her office door, she found Bobby standing there. "Hey, Bobby. Something you need?"

"Just Fawkes, if you can spare him," Bobby said to her with a smile.

"He's all yours. I'm heading home." Alyx gave them a wave and walked off.

"She okay?" Hobbes asked as Darien stepped into the hall and shut the office door behind him.

"Fine. A little tired, maybe." He and Hobbes moved side by side down the hall towards the Official's office. "She's been having trouble sleeping and I'll bet she was here before Eberts this morning."

Eberts had apparently overheard this and responded as they opened the door. "She was, and that is why she is being sent home."

"Huh? Concern for her?" Darien was honestly confused, then he became suspicious. "What's going on?"

"Her assistance has been requested elsewhere. She's leaving in two days and I want her human not the walking zombie she has been for the last month." The Official filled in. "Now what did you find out about those Blackhawks?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Darien walked into her apartment just after six, carrying both an overnight bag and his satchel, he was greeted by the heavenly scent of her roast chicken and the sight of her sprawled, dozing, on her sofa. Her CD player was on, playing some soft blues music. He set the bags down and walked over to her. Kneeling on the floor beside her, he leaned over and kissed her gently. She reacted by opening her mouth beneath his and reaching one hand up to bury itself in his hair. Her fingers traced gently over the scar on the back of his head, causing him to shiver. The scar was extremely sensitive, they had learned, though not painful.

"Hmmm, Jose is that you? Thought tomorrow was your day?" Alyx mumbled when she pulled away slightly.

"Jose? Okay, I can do a Jose," Darien said, going into a really bad Spanish accent. His hand wandered down to her side and began to tickle her.

Alyx's eyes flew open and she began to squirm and squeal in reaction. "Ah, D... Dare don't. Please."

At the please he stopped, grinning at her. "Jose, huh?"

"Not nice," she panted. She hated being ticklish, and he knew with her hypersensitivity it sometimes took very little to set it off.

"When were you going to mention your little trip?" he asked as he shifted her so that he now sat on the sofa with her head in his lap.

"My... Oh, that. It hadn't been confirmed yet." She watched him frown slightly. "Not to me anyway."

"Typical. Did you get any rest?" She still looked tired to him.

"Some, and I pulled one of my tricks. I'll be fine." She stretched slightly.

"So what was it last night?" Darien asked quietly. Somehow he knew that while he'd been out having fun with Hobbes, she'd had a really bad night.

She closed her eyes, not wanting to remember it again. Just thinking about it didn't bother her all that much, it was when it got shoved into her head and she found herself trapped in the memory that it tormented her. "The slavers."

Her voice was so soft he barely heard her. "The shock collars?" he guessed.

"Nooo. The rape." She pushed herself up and got off the sofa, heading to the kitchen.

Darien sat stunned for long moment, not quite sure what to say. He had known it was a possibility after what they'd been told by Morris, but as far as he knew she had told no one, not even Claire. He certainly hadn't known anything about it. He turned to look at her as she got the chicken out and finished her dinner preparations.

"Alyx, I didn't know."

She shrugged. "It's not that big a deal, except for the fact it kept me from sleeping last night."

"Bullshit," Darien snapped getting to his feet. He wasn't angry with her, but he was angry.

She looked at him, rather surprised. She couldn't help but know what he was feeling and so knew his anger wasn't directed at her, but at the situation as a whole. And partially at himself because he had been unable to help her. "It isn't, really. Compared to Jess, their efforts were pitiful." She glanced over at him, deciding to explain something that she had...not exactly avoided, but hadn't felt the need to talk about until now. "I'll admit, after what Jess put me through I was reluctant to get involved with anyone, especially you. But in the end, it didn't matter. You are not Jess."

"Until I'm late for a shot," Darien muttered. He'd done some less than nice things to her when they'd been a little late getting him a shot.

She set down the pan she'd been holding and walked over to him. "No. Don't you ever think that. I've been in that head of yours. I know what goes on. You are nothing like Jess. Yeah, you can be a right bastard thanks to the madness, but that is only part of you. Jess did what he did because he enjoyed it, because he was good at it, and his employers paid him to." She took his hands into hers. "Do you really think, knowing what I am and what I can do, that I could care for you if you were the slightest bit like him?" She urged him to sit down at the table. "I knew who and what you were within five minutes of our first meeting. I haven't run yet, have I?"

He just looked at her. "Alyx, I'm not sure what to say."

"Say you're hungry, 'cause I kinda went on one of my cooking sprees this afternoon." She gave him a small smile. She knew he had trouble understanding why she had come back, why she stuck beside him. Why she would walk away if she thought he wanted her to. "I'm here as long as you want me to be."

He pulled her in close for a real kiss. Sometimes... sometimes words just weren't enough. After a few minutes he pulled back. "Dinner, then info, I take it?"

"Yes, sir. And you are gonna love what I came up with. If it works as well as I hope, you and Bobby should be able to get some use out of it as well." Alyx moved away to finish the few things left for dinner.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They sat in the rental car, a couple blocks over from Richards' building. They'd be cutting across the property that backed up to parking lot behind the building. The likelihood that a car parked on this street would be associated with something a block over was slim to none. The fact that she had arranged for a rental car shouldn't have surprised him as much as it had. Her car would stand out in the area and his car, though not very memorable, could be recognized after the few trips that he'd made out here already.

She'd given him a quick lesson in how to use the gadget she had created the night before. She wasn't entirely happy with it, finding it still a bit bulkier than she liked, but good enough for the time she'd had to work on it. He was in love with it. It could handle just about any piece of electronics he had encountered in his experience with a few taps on the comp pad and a switch of connector. He'd heard of these systems, but had never seen one that worked this well. When he asked her about it, she replied that she'd been considering something like it for a while and that he and Hobbes were more than welcome to use it when she wasn't available. Darien might be able to sneak past most security by going invisible, but Hobbes couldn't.

Tonight was going to be the field test for it.

They were both kit out in black from head to toe, and Alyx had a snug-fitting hat hiding her hair. She was even wearing a pair of gloves that he knew cost a small fortune -- he'd never been able to afford a pair -- and he wondered where she had gotten them. Not for the first time he seriously wondered what kind of jobs the Official had been sending her out on if she owned and was comfortable in these clothes and carrying the gear she had. Now, however, was not the time to ask.

They made their way around the building they had parked in front of, through the cheesy fence separating the two pieces of property, and across the parking lot to the entrance of the access tunnel. While Alyx kept a watch out for unexpected visitors -- they had memorized the guard routine she had downloaded from the security computer -- Darien got to work on this trickier than usual lock. It was mere seconds before he had it open, though he damaged it beyond repair in the process. By morning everyone would know someone had broken in, so it didn't really matter.

He waved her in first and then slipped in behind her. She'd warned him it would be a tight fit and she was more than right. He was forced to crawl to the first security gate that sat in the tunnel. Getting comfortable, he pulled the headset and rig out of her backpack, as well as the first canister of the destabilizing compound. Using a red tinted flashlight so that they could see, Alyx outlined the area that was safe to break through on the door. After putting on the headset she called up the stored blueprint and security data. Once the info was up on the screen she was as ready as she could be to override the security on the far side.

Darien tried to hide a grin. This was the fun part, as far as he was concerned. He could feel the adrenaline pumping, but was more than able to keep things under control and channel the energy into getting the job done. Alyx hunched under the various cables while he crouched before the door holding the canister. With a quick glance over at her he sprayed the compound and watched as it did its magic, turning the thick metal of the door into a tan ooze.

"Crap," he muttered, realizing the motion sensors on the other side could, possibly, pick up the movement as the door melted.

He had nothing to worry about. Ignoring the mildly grotesque feel of the stuff, Alyx had pushed her hand through, jammed one of her override connectors into the keypad on the far side, and taken over control of the security in that section of the tunnel. She tapped at the touch screen before her and watched both the pad and the heads up display in front of her right eye. "Gotcha," she muttered to herself, then turned to Darien. "The tunnel security is all linked together. We're clear for now."

Darien did grin this time. "Great. You first."

Alyx slipped through the hole in the door and Darien followed. Both were pleased to find that, after a few feet, the tunnel was larger on this side. Alyx was almost able to stand upright, though Darien still had to walk doubled over. They got through the next door with no problems, since Alyx had already reset the security. Then they arrived at the final door. On the other side should be the power distribution center for the building. Alyx would have to access the security on the other side quickly in order to keep them from being seen. According to the information she had downloaded and what she couldn't help but sense she should be able to get into the security for the building and, hopefully, override it from here, if not they would deal with the security one piece at a time. They only needed to get up one level and then into the heavily protected computer room, but he had confidence that they could do it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bobby Hobbes was getting very irritated at his two partners. By the time Fawkes had left for the day, he had known something was up and had decided there was no way he was not going to find out what. So he'd tailed Fawkes, first to his apartment and then over to the kid's place. He wasn't sure what they were up to, and he'd discovered that the ancient glass in Alyx's windows was quite effective at making the parabolic mic useless. He waited down the street in the van, tapping the steering wheel. He expected that Fawkes wouldn't have learned his lesson, but he had hoped, truly hoped, he'd refrain from getting the kid mixed up in his illegal activities.

What really concerned him is that the kid had the potential to be a damn dangerous thief. With her skills and her extra talents, there wasn't much that could stop her, with Darien's influence and the constant temptation to run from the Agency.... Bobby did his best to not think about that. He did not want to have to be the one to hunt them down so that the Official could harvest the gland and force the kid to give up her powers again, willing or not. And that is exactly what would happen if they chose to run.

When he saw them drive off in her car around 11:00, he cursed. There was nothing good they could be up to. He followed, but discovered that he couldn't keep up with her and she quickly lost him in the late evening traffic. Not sure where to go, he pulled over climbed into the back of the van and turned on the police scanner he had in back. The last time he'd really needed this was to track down Fawkes when he went AWOL that one time before the kid came. He had the bad feeling that at some point tonight there would be a call that most definitely involved his two partners.

Getting himself comfortable, he sat back to wait.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alyx broke through the door before the ooze had even come close to finishing its job and went to the keypad nearby. She popped off one of the number keys and shoved the metal sensing rod inside. For all the security in the building, this was cheap and easy to defeat. This got her in far enough to deal with the room they were in. She was able to convince the motion sensors that they had made an error and sent them into a standard self-diagnostic, which would keep them busy for a while. Thankfully there were no cameras down here, and within moments she was done.

Darien had moved over to the elevator and was frowning at the mag card lock there. Alyx walked over beside him, took off the gear and handed it to him. Without hesitation he fit the headpiece for himself and after a moment adjusting to the two different views seen with his eyes. Switching out connectors he set the blank mag card through the slot and began pressing keys on the comp pad. In moments he was in and the elevator was on its way. He extracted the card and looked over at Alyx with a grin.

His smile was contagious. "You are easy to please. You did remember to shut down the camera in the car, right?"

"Crap." Darien slid the card back into place and, after a moment spent tracking down the signal, did exactly that. Just in time too, for the car arrived and the doors opened.

Alyx pressed the button for the floor they wanted and waited patiently for the doors to slide shut and the car to move. "What next?"

He shook his head and regretted it because of the disorientation due to the display before one eye. "Shit," he complained, and Alyx reached out to keep him steady. "Umm, nothing till further down the hall. Laser grid from the looks of it outside the computer room."

"It takes a bit to get used to," Alyx reassured him.

"Where the hell did you learn to do this stuff?" Darien asked her as the doors opened and they stepped out into the darkened hallway.

Alyx shrugged. "Here and there." They made their way down the hall and around the corner. This hall was empty except for the metal double doors at the end of it. Alyx went to her knees and slipped off her pack. Taking out what looked like a metallic coffee thermos, which Darien had supplied, she oriented it and triggered it. Smoke poured out, filling the hallway and revealing the laser grid that filled a good portion of it. The design was of rows of diamonds going from floor to ceiling for about two thirds of the hallway. Alyx realized she was small enough to squeak through if she was careful, but Darien had no chance at all.

Darien had moved over to the control for the system. This one was more complex; it required a code and a handprint to turn it off and release the locking mechanism on the doors. Inserting the probe, he growled to himself, "This is gonna take forever."

"Why? Just call up the last code put in and make it think it's the current one," Alyx whispered to him. She could sense no one near them on this level, but there were a few on the floors above them. They needed to move as swiftly as possible.

"Good thought." It took him a moment, but he figured out how to do exactly that. He just needed to put his hand over the scanner, even though it thought it was reading someone else's hand. As soon as the lights went green, the laser field dropped. Within moments they were in the main computer room.

Darien disconnected the headset from the comp pad and handed it back to Alyx, who had retrieved her wireless connection from her bag. Going over to the nearest computer station, she disabled the cameras and just hoped the security hadn't noticed their momentary presence in the dimly lit room.

She put on the headset and attached the wireless connection, connecting it to the main computer. "I'm set," she said to Darien.

"Quick as you can."

"You know it." Centering herself, she slipped into the data stream and began her search. She was looking for the biggest wall in there and found it rather quickly. Getting through it was going to be the challenge. This one was tight, but after a few virtual minutes she had wormed her way inside and found everything she had hoped and then some. Not only did she have the proof she needed to get Richards on the current scam he was running, she also found the trails to the other pies he had his fingers in. Nate Richards had been a few other people in his life, including one Nathaniel Greene who was wanted by a variety of federal agencies on suspicion of child porn and snuff films. Perfect. She uploaded everything to the computer station she was at and prepared to e-mail all the information to several different addresses she had set up before coming in here.

When she felt Darien touch her left shoulder she was able to pull herself out with a minimum of difficulty. "Company," he whispered in her ear.

Company was right, though not security, just a late working employee who was muttering something under his breath. Darien had ducked under the counter out of view, but Alyx had no chance to. The guy spotted her and hit the alarm before she had a chance to react.

"Ah, crap," She slammed the guy into the wall, knocking him out, and then turned to Darien. Setting a hand on his shoulder she started the quicksilver flowing over him. "Get out. I'll cover you."

"Alyx..." There was no way in hell he was going to leave her behind.

"Just go. I have to make sure this gets out. In five minutes I'll kill the power to the building. That should more than cover your exit." As she talked to him she got the files moving, but there was a lot of information and she didn't dare disconnect until it was all sent. "Do you trust your partner?" she asked, eerily echoing Hobbes' question from the other night.

"Always. Be careful." He didn't wait, but did as she asked. He had the comp pad, so if there were problems he could still override the security if necessary.

He dodged the security personnel coming down the hallway and made it to the elevator with little trouble. He knew the quicksilver she had coated him in wouldn't last much longer, but did not want to use any of his own unless absolutely necessary.

He was down in the power distribution center, the quicksilver having fallen off in the elevator, when she contacted him, *_Killing the power now_.* And that is exactly what happened. Emergency lighting came on and he made his way to the access tunnel and out of the building.

Alyx knew she was not going to get out of this one. Not the way Darien had, anyway. Once she was certain the file transfer was not going to be stopped, she moved to another computer and convinced it to send a command to every printer it was connected to in the building. Within minutes they began printing the same files she was e-mailing out. By then security was banging on the door she had been holding shut with part of her mind. She took a moment to verify the files were on their way and then, after sending a warning to Darien, shut down the power to the entire building. The emergency power kicked on. With a sigh, she let the security guards into the room, where they found her waiting calmly to be discovered.

It was looking like she was going to get to experience the joy of a trip to the police station.


	6. Chapter 6

*Part 6*

Hobbes was sitting in the van, trying to ignore the time and the police chatter that, so far, had not interested him. He yawned and considered running out to find some coffee when the traffic on the scanner caught his attention. "...units to 14356 Oakdale. Break-in reported by security."

Hobbes groaned. He knew that location, big office building just outside the main downtown area. Starting the van, he headed for the location. It was good bet this 'break-in' had something to do with his wayward partners.

Pulling up just down the street, he watched the police going about their jobs. A few other gawkers had shown up and, wanting to get closer, he got out and joined the crowd. The bar down the street had let out and there was a good-sized collection of less-than-sober people gathered outside, obviously having nothing better to do now that the bar itself was closed.

He could just hear a couple of the cops standing lazily by their cruiser, talking with each other. He sidled a bit closer, not sure what he was going to do if this disturbance actually turned out to be caused by one or both of his friends.

Then the guilty party was lead out in handcuffs, and it took less than a second for Bobby to recognize the perp. That red hair was unmistakable. He ground his teeth as he listened to the cops joking that the 'Robin Hood' the papers had been praising had turned out to be 'Maid Marian.'

*_Bobby, don't do anything_,* she suddenly said into his mind. He twitched, but did not react otherwise. She didn't even glance over at him. *_Call the Attorney General's Office and ask to speak to James Ferndale. Tell him to check his e-mail_.*

*_Kid_...* Bobby couldn't help but let the anger he felt creep into his mind voice.

*_Trust me Bobby_.* Alyx was shoved uncomfortably into the back of the cruiser.

He did nothing. In fact, he waited until the car had driven off before moving back to the van. He sat there for nearly thirty minutes before he picked up his cell phone and did exactly as she had asked. He wasn't sure what the hell was going on, suspected that Fawkes was involved in some way, but after her phone call saving their asses the other night he couldn't just ignore what she had requested.

The answering service had been reluctant when he insisted that his call be put through and no, he didn't give a damn what time it was. When he mentioned that he was indeed a federal agent, however, things got moving a bit faster.

Ferndale had not been thrilled to be awakened, and even less thrilled to have orders tossed at him by some Fed he didn't know. His mood changed though when he actually opened his e-mail, and he began to question Hobbes quite enthusiastically. Ferndale was disappointed to find out Hobbes was just passing on a message and just got the basic information he needed to contact him, if needed, before hanging up.

Hobbes stared at his phone for long moments, wondering exactly what the hell had just happened.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Darien got back to the car, he had to force himself to simply start the engine and leave. He felt like he was abandoning her, even though she had insisted that he go. Following the original plan, he drove back to the rental place to return the car and pick up hers. Everything had already been paid for, so there was nothing he else needed to do.

He'd taken both her bag and his when he left. All she'd had was her headset and wireless, less stuff for her to get into trouble with. Driving back to his place -- he'd swap cars in the morning -- he tried not to worry about her. She would have either gotten out or been arrested. If arrested, and if she kept her mouth shut, she would probably end up in juvenile detention considering how young she looked. Not the greatest place on earth, but nowhere near as bad as the city jail. Though if she got shoved into a holding cell with a bunch of female gang-bangers, she could be in trouble.

This had not been part of his plan, and he felt damn guilty about it.

Once inside his place, he shoved the bags under his bed and stripped out of his clothes, tossing them into his laundry basket. Stepping into the shower, he turned it on and shivered at the cold water that ran over his body. He had planned to drag her back here and spend a couple of hours celebrating their success. Instead he was standing alone, in a cold shower, berating himself for leaving her behind, for not dragging her along with him, hell, for getting her involved in the first place. Hobbes was right, she did not need this shit in her life.

Maybe she didn't need him in her life if he was going to do stuff this stupid.

The water had finally begun to warm, but he still just stood there, his forehead pressed against the tile of the wall, as the water pounded down on his back. Once again he found himself playing the blame game that he had become so very good at over the many long months he had spent at the Agency. Only this time, instead of trying to place blame as to why he got stuck with the gland in his head, it was about what else he could have done instead of getting back into his past career. It didn't matter that it had begun as harmless fun, a way of easing some of the boredom and giving him something to do instead of relying on Alyx or Bobby to keep him amused when there was nothing going on. Hell, he'd be the first to admit he missed it, but he'd been hoping that by keeping what he did light, making the challenge to just get in and out instead of stealing something and getting away clean, that it would be enough to keep him amused.

It hadn't worked, obviously.

Granted, even nights he'd gone out for some of his 'fun,' he'd usually ended up back at her place afterwards. The thrill of a successful job was always better when he could then celebrate with some... some... ah, hell, some damned fantastic sex. Might as well admit it. The adrenaline rush doing a job was only surpassed by the chance to burn off all that extra energy with her. Not once had she complained about being woken up. In fact, several times she'd already been awake, like she'd been waiting for him.

He shook the water out of his eyes, noticing that it was quickly growing cold again, and hurriedly washed and rinsed.

Getting out, he stared at himself in the half-fogged mirror, mentally berating himself. Yeah, she might have accepted him as he was, but that didn't give him the right to use that to get her to do something. Too bad he hadn't thought of that before beginning this fiasco of a job.

Drying and getting dressed, he crawled into his emptier than usual bed and tried to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alyx had not said a word during the entire drive to the station. Now she was sitting in the small room, her hands still handcuffed behind her, waiting for them to decide what they were going to do with her. She'd had the joy of having her prints taken, though they had yet to take her picture for a mug shot. Hard to do that when she had yet to give them a name. Two different detectives had been in so far, and both had given up after short time when she had done nothing more than stare at them.

She was behaving herself. She hadn't undone the cuffs, hadn't screamed for a lawyer, hadn't asked to call her parents -- one of the things they kept suggesting -- hadn't done anything but sit here, bored out of her mind, for the last hour.

The door opened again and two detectives, one a woman, walked in. It was obvious they were going to tag-team her. "Well, Miss..." The woman let it hang, hoping Alyx would fill in the name for her. When it became obvious she would not, the cop continued. "We ran your prints and came back with a big blank. So either you've been real good and haven't gotten caught before..."

"Or this is your first job, and either you screwed up or your partner bailed. Leaving you to take the fall." The male detective finished.

Alyx shifted back to get a bit more comfortable and yawned.

"Kid, do you have any idea how much trouble you are in?" He had leaned forward on the table to yell this at her.

Alyx just smiled. He suddenly reminded her so much of Bobby that she found it difficult to keep from laughing.

The woman took over then, sitting on the edge of the table and doing the concerned adult routine. "Isn't there anyone we can contact for you? Someone must be worried about you."

Alyx didn't react. Yeah, there would be at least two people worried about her, one of them feeling guilty as hell about leaving her behind. The other probably equal parts angry and confused. They'd be just fine, and by morning most of this should be over with, provided Hobbes had done as she had asked. Otherwise, tomorrow was going to be a long day.

"How stupid are you?" the guy snarled in exasperation. "You have no ID, no record we could find, you're probably a runaway, and you were caught breaking into the offices of one of the richest men in town. Do you really think you are just going to walk away from this?"

Alyx could tell he was getting really irritated at her lack of response. Apparently he was usually pretty good with kids in her situation. Too bad for him she wasn't a kid.

A new voice broke in from the other side of the two-way mirror. "Who did you send the e-mail to?"

Alyx sat up straighter and probed gently on the far side of the glass. She was pleased by who she found. "James Ferndale at the Attorney General's office. Carlton Harding of the FBI. Layton Kirkpatrick of the FCC. Charlie Borden of the Department of Fish and Game." She knew the last would confuse him, but she had her reasons for doing so.

The door opened and the aforementioned James Ferndale stepped into the room. "Release her."

"We can't do that," the male detective said, recognizing the man.

"God damn it, I'm her lawyer. Take off the cuffs, now!" he shouted at the two cops.

When the female detective stepped over, Alyx moved her hands from behind her back and handed the unlocked cuffs to her. The woman didn't even bother to comment. If a bigwig from the Attorney General's Office was coming in to play lawyer for some unknown kid, then something major was going down and she wasn't sure she wanted to know about it.

"Clear out," Ferndale said to both of them, but it took an order from their boss on the far side of the glass to get them to move.

As soon as the door had shut, Ferndale pulled a chair over and sat next to her. "Well, should I assume you are the infamous 'Robin Hood' everyone in town has been cheering about?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny that," she responded with a wry grin. "Can the information do you any good?"

Ferndale nodded. "We need to legitimize it, though. My people are working on the problem as we speak."

Alyx nodded.

Ferndale continued. "By dawn things should be settled enough to get you out of here. Think you can handle that?"

"Get them to let me use the ladies room and give me a place to lie down and I'll be just fine," Alyx said truthfully. She really wanted no part of spending the next few hours sitting in this very uncomfortable chair.

"Ladies... Damn, they still pull that stunt, do they?" He patted her on the shoulder. "It will be done, I promise."

She believed him.

Less than twenty minutes later, after having dealt with her immediate needs, she found herself ensconced in, not a jail cell, but a cot in the crib of the station. Granted, there was a plainclothes police officer standing outside the door, but she didn't care. She curled up and fell asleep within minutes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hobbes burst into Darien's apartment just before 7:00 AM, intending to catch him out. Instead he found no one, much to his surprise. Then a disembodied voice spoke from the far side of the room.

"God damn it, Hobbes. What the hell is your problem?" Darien shouted as the quicksilver that had involuntarily flowed across his body when Hobbes had burst in flaked off.

"My problem? What did you get the kid mixed up in?" Hobbes shouted right back at his partner.

"Mixed up in? What...?" Darien moved across the room to glare down at the shorter man. "I dropped her off last night and came back here. I'm supposed to pick her up in an hour." He wasn't quite sure where that had come from, but it was as good a cover story as any.

"Dropped her off, ri-ight. And I'm supposed to believe this, why?" Hobbes had stopped shouting but the anger was still there.

"Yes, Hobbes. I don't presume to keep track of her every move. I'm not the one with the paranoia." That was an unfair shot, but it was worth it to see his reaction.

Hobbes backed off a step, nodding. Maybe the kid had done it on her own. "Well then, you'll be pleased to know she got herself arrested last night breaking into the offices of high roller Nate Richards."

Darien didn't have to fake his dismay at Hobbes' words. He had really hoped she'd gotten away. "Aw, crap."

"You said it, my friend. Apparently this isn't the first stunt she's pulled." Hobbes tipped his head a bit, waiting to see Darien's reaction. "According to the papers, she's 'Robin Hood.'"

Darien shook his head. "Can't be. Not Alyx."

"Just telling you what the papers said. No names or pics, just that 'he' is a 'she,' and where she was caught last night." Hobbes was starting to believe that maybe, just maybe, Fawkes had nothing to do with last night or any of it.

Darien moved to his bureau and began to pull out clothes to wear. "We gotta get her out."

"No can do. Not unless she calls one of us." He realized Fawkes truly was upset about this. "We don't know she was arrested, remember?"

"Damn it, Bobby. We have to do something," Darien snapped at him.

"We are. We're going to tell the chief what we, or rather I, know. He'll handle it from there," Hobbes explained, keeping his tone calm. He wasn't sure how far along Fawkes was with the quicksilver; yesterday he'd been half full, but there was always a chance that Hobbes' surprise entrance had pushed him a bit too far. "You okay?"

Darien glanced at his wrist. He still had four left, so was still good for a couple of days. "Fine. I'll be ready in twenty minutes."

"Sure, Fawkes. I'll make some coffee." Hobbes moved off to the kitchen while Darien headed into his bathroom to get ready.

Hobbes shook his head, no longer quite sure what had been going on the past few weeks. He still had trouble believing the kid could have done this on her own. He wasn't sure even Fawkes was capable of these 'Robin Hood' stunts. Deciding to start stealing again? Yeah, that he could see. But catching bad guys? On his own time? That he just couldn't believe. Far easier to believe in the Easter Bunny.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When they walked into the Official's office some forty-five minutes later, they still hadn't come up with an easy way to explain why Alyx was in jail or how Hobbes had come to have such information. Darien certainly had no intention of telling the truth. He preferred to avoid spending time in the padded room while ensconced in a less-than-comfortable straightjacket. Bobby, on the other hand, was not sure he wanted to tell the boss that he'd started suspecting that Fawkes and maybe the kid had been up to something for several weeks now, but that he had failed to catch them at it in time to prevent the police from getting involved.

Their concerns went right out the window, for when they opened the door to the office they found Alyx sitting calmly on the conference table talking with the Official and several men neither Hobbes or Darien recognized. She was still wearing the all-black outfit she had been arrested in last night, and surprisingly the Official didn't look the least bit angry. In fact, he looked rather smug and satisfied.

"Good morning, boys," he began, gesturing for them to sit. "James Ferndale, meet Agents Fawkes and Hobbes."

They nodded, but neither of them was able to find their voice. Darien just looked rather stunned at seeing Alyx, when he'd fully expected to have to go bail her out after explaining to the Official that she was in jail. Bobby was, somehow, not surprised that she had gotten herself out of it. Considering who she'd had him call, he had suspected, in some small corner of his mind, that maybe this had been an Agency assignment for Alyx, one that he had known nothing about. It wouldn't be the first time, after all.

"Agent Hobbes, how did you know to call me?" Ferndale asked in curiosity.

"I left him a delayed voice mail," Alyx answered, saving Bobby the effort of having to make up his own story. "Morning, guys." She gave both men a smile and gently touched Darien's mind to assure him she was all right.

"Fawkes, Hobbes, hit the road. I still need you to track down the source of those Blackhawks." It was obvious the Official still had more to discuss with Alyx and the three men, and it was equally obvious that they were going to be left out of the need-to-know loop yet again.

Eberts walked over to them holding a slim file. "These are the results of the tests done on the trucks. It should give you a place to start."

Bobby looked over the report inside and smiled. Oh yeah, it would give them a place to start, and they might even finish this today if they had a little luck. He glanced over at Alyx. At a guess, luck was something they had in ready supply today. "No prob, chief."

"I want some sort of results by this afternoon, understand me?" The Official tried to sound gruff, but it was a little forced at the moment.

"Yeah, we understand," Darien commented, a bit distracted. "Alyx?"

"I'll give you a call later," she told him, hoping he'd be a little patient, and a lot understanding.

He nodded to her. "Come on, Hobbes. I should see the Keep first just in case." He gave Bobby a shove to get him moving.

"Hmmm? Oh, right." He followed Darien out of the room, shutting the door behind them.

Alyx turned back to the Official. They were waiting for a few others to show and then they had a lot of work to do in order to guarantee success in taking down Mr. Nate Richards once and for all.

It was late afternoon before the others finally left and Alyx could speak to the Official alone. "So boss, when did you know something was up?"

He chuckled. Oh yeah, even for all the difficulties with her, she was damn good. "Eberts."

"Sir." He moved over to the boxes of files and, after a moment of searching, pulled out one and handed it to Alyx.

Inside was a grainy photo taken from a very cheap video surveillance camera. She looked at the date and the location on the typed report also in the file. It was not a face shot, but she knew who it was. That long, lean body encased in close-fitting black. Hell, that hair. "Since the beginning, huh?" She closed the file and handed it back. "No wonder work has been so slow. You made sure it was, so that when the time came, you could try and grab credit for the Agency. Behind closed doors, at least."

The Official didn't answer her directly. "How long have you known?"

Alyx shook her head. "Known? Wrong question. You know I don't intentionally read him." She slid off the table and stretched. It had been a rather long 24 hours at this point. "It was harmless, anyway. I didn't see you rushing off to stop him."

"Of course not. He works better when he's not brooding. If a little _harmless_ after-hours activity helps to keep him happy, I'm willing to look the other way." The Official raised one finger to wave at her. "See to it he keeps it harmless and doesn't abuse the quicksilver. The counteragent is still expensive."

Alyx shook her head laughing lightly. "Always the practical one, aren't you Charlie?" She walked over to the door. "I'm heading home." She paused with the door open. "Oh, what about that loan job? Health and Human Services, wasn't it?"

"This takes precedence. Agent Monroe will just have to wait. Go home. Be on time for the meeting tomorrow," the Official ordered, turning back to his work.

"Yes, boss," Alyx replied, leaving the room to head for home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alyx was standing at the foot of her bed, holding a couple of glasses of wine and looking at Darien, who was lying there watching her. When he opened his mouth to say something, she overrode him. "If you say you're bored, I'm going to hurt you." She moved over to him and handed him one of the glasses.

Taking it from her, he chuckled. "No." He waited until she had made herself comfortable before continuing. "I...I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked you to get involved with my...my life."

"Too late, bub. Everything turned out just fine, and I can honestly say it was fun. In a kinda weird way, but fun." She could tell he either didn't want to believe her or was simply outright refusing to. "You're not upset about my usurping your credit, are you 'Robin'?"

He shook his head and set the glass aside. "Not really. I know it was me, and you know. That's more than enough. I just...you shouldn't be taking the blame for it."

"Blame? The 'Fish is crowing with delight. Since _I _did all this work, work the agencies involved couldn't seem to do, our Agency is getting at least partial credit. He's in budget-boost heaven." Alyx could tell Darien was truly upset about her involvement and the way it had ended. She had explained that she'd done some extra research and had prepared for the contingency of them being caught. She hadn't told him simply because she didn't want to ruin his fun. If he suddenly thought it was nothing more than another government job then the entire point of doing it, for him anyway, would be gone. Maybe it had been a little unfair of her, but considering how things turned out she felt more than justified. 

For all that he was sprawled on her bed, he'd done no more than kick off his shoes. He hadn't even managed to really relax, and it bothered her. She wasn't sure if he was angry with her for going behind his back with her arrangements or because they'd screwed up and gotten caught. Or maybe he really was upset that she had stolen his glory. She'd made the headlines for the evening papers, though her name and picture were strangely absent. "Talk to me, Dare."

He closed his eyes for a long moment. He'd done a lot of thinking about everything that had happened in the last week, and he still hadn't come up with a solution. There was something he'd been considering for a couple months, but now...now he was beginning to think it was an option he should bury in the farthest reaches of his mind and forget. He opened his eyes to find her still sitting in the same position, waiting patiently for him to figure out what he wanted to say.

"I've been a thief most of my life," he began, finding this very familiar. "And that's not likely to change, even with both Bobby and the Fat Man breathing down my neck." He reached out and picked up one of her hands. "I don't want you to end up hurt because of it."

Alyx could feel his discomfort, his guilt for what he thought he'd put her through, his honesty about not changing. She realized he was going to get all stupidly noble and do something that he thought would protect her. "Fool. I'd be more likely to get hurt if you stopped being who you were because of what someone else said."

He blinked at her, not quite sure he understood.

"Don't change who you are for anyone else including me. Look, I do not claim to own any part of your life. Whatever you're willing to give me, I'll take, gladly. Partner, friend, lover, any or all, but if you truly want to walk out that door and not come back I will not stop you." She waved her hand in the direction of the door and watched the different emotions race across his features.

"You'd let me go? Just like that?" He was wavering between anger and sadness.

"If that was what you really wanted, what would make you happy, then yes, I would," Alyx answered honestly. It might not have been what he wanted to hear, but it was the truth. She moved then bringing herself to within inches of him. "Personally, I like you here."

His free hand came up to caress her face. "Damn it. This is wrong, but leaving is not what I want."

She closed her eyes, enjoying his touch. "What is it you do want?"

He leaned in to kiss her, lightly, teasingly. Making her respond in that most wonderful of ways that he would truly hate to lose. "Marry me," he whispered into her ear.

She froze, and he immediately knew that he had made a huge mistake. He watched as she backed away from him to sit just out of his reach. She closed her eyes and swallowed around the huge lump that had suddenly found its way into her throat.

"Alyx?" He sounded concerned. After what they had just been discussing, for him to take what must have been a major left turn must have thrown her.

It took her another minute to organize herself before she could open her eyes and look at him. "Thank you for asking. It means a lot, but I can't...I won't marry you."

"I don't understand. You talked me out of leaving." He moved then, wanting, needing to be near her. "But you don't want anything more?"

"What more could I need? You're here. I'm here. I told you when we were at Piotr's wedding that I didn't need any more than that. I still don't." She reached up to run her fingers along his cheek. "Does this have to become an issue between us?"

"Damn it, Alyx. Maybe I don't want you get away from me." He was unable to keep the frustration and confusion he felt out of his voice. He'd never really considered himself the type to get married, until recently. Now, yeah, he wanted to marry her. Wanted some assurance that she would be there when he woke up in the morning, that when he came home at night she would be there. That he truly did hold a place in her heart like she claimed.

"I'm here for as long as you want me. I have no need of a ring or piece of paper for that." she answered in a soft voice.

"Maybe I do," he responded. Backing away from her, he reached for his glass of wine and drank it down quickly. Before he made a possibly foolish and irrevocable decision, he asked, "Why?"

She shook her head, finding herself unable to answer him.

"I better go, then." He got to his feet and walked away from the bed, leaving her sitting there unmoving.

When her front door opened and shut just minutes later, she still hadn't moved. She'd meant what she'd said.

__

"It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not."

I was...am a thief. I had been forced into a job that, most days, didn't fit. I'd made friends that did their best to understand, to accept me for who and what I was. But some days, it still wasn't enough.

I may have changed, but not that much.

Finis


End file.
